Jennifer Aniston is laughing off the dating rumours between herself and her “Friends” co-star, David Schwimmer, that popped up shortly after the sitcom’s HBO Max reunion special aired back in May.
“That was bizarre. I could not believe that, actually. Like, really? That’s my brother,” Aniston told ET’s Rachel Smith of 54-year-old Schwimmer during a joint interview with her and her “Morning Show” co-star Reese Witherspoon. “But I understand it, though. It just shows you how hopeful people are for fantasies, for dreams to come true.”
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Reps for both Aniston and Schwimmer have previously denied the dating rumours, which circulated after the co-stars confirmed that they had crushes on one another while portraying Rachel Green and Ross Gellar on “Friends”.
“The first season, we– I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer said during the HBO Max reunion. Aniston replied, “It was reciprocated.”
“At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other,” Schwimmer continued. “But it was like two ships passing, because one of us was always in a relationship. And we never crossed that boundary. We respected that.”
— Photo: Terence Patrick courtesy of HBO Max
The reunion special picked up four Emmy nominations, which Aniston told ET was not expected.
“It’s very exciting, and it was, kind of, not even expected,” she said. “We’re in the same category as ‘Hamilton’, so that’s the closest I’ll get to a Broadway show. But yes, that was a nice surprise.”
Witherspoon, who played one of Aniston’s sisters on “Friends”, also spoke to ET about the impact of the sitcom in her own life.
“I cried three times watching you guys,” she said of the show’s reunion special. “It reminds me of a time in my life. So y’all lived it, but we watched it, and it was important to me. I remember having a little baby and being a mom and you guys were my friends.”
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Now the co-stars and collaborators are gearing up for season 2 of their hit drama, “The Morning Show”. This season will tackle not just the drama within the newsroom, but also the anchors having to handle the COVID-19 pandemic as many real-life morning shows did in 2020 and beyond.
“When we locked down was when we realized that we had to go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how do we incorporate this into the show,” Aniston, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, said of the decision to include real world events. “And also figure out how to delicately weave it through because we didn’t know where we would be when this show aired. If we’d be out of COVID and would people be fatigued by hearing about COVID?”
“The Morning Show” season 2 premieres Friday, Sept. 17, on Apple TV+.