Jennifer Grey had 'such bad anxiety' filming 'Friends' that she didn’t return to the show

"Dirty Dancing" star Jennifer Grey opened up about when she guest starred on Season One of "Friends" — and how her mental health got in the way of her later reprising the role.

Grey played Mindy on the first season of the show, and famously joined forces with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) to confront Barry (Mitchell Whitfield) about cheating at his dental office, though Grey told MediaVillage the show wasn't as easy to film as it looked.

"I was a fan of the show, and I got the call to do it,” Grey, 63, said. "Then when I did it, I had such bad anxiety because they kept changing the script."

"It’s very hard to be a guest star because you’re not a part of it, and you’re really trying to figure it all out. They were trying to figure out what the character was, what the scene was, and it was changing, and changing, and changing. It all made me so anxious that I could barely do it," she continued.

The actor said she didn't know it then, but she later realized she was dealing with symptoms of anxiety.

"I didn’t know at the time what was going on with me," she said. "But I had a lot of performance anxiety, and I just didn’t understand at that time that I needed help in the anxiety department."

Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Grey's description of the set conditions on "Friends."

Grey told MediaVillage she was able to complete the "Friends" episode, but her anxiety prevented her from taking roles on other shows, including "Saturday Night Live."

"I always just (felt) like I wished I had the ability to do things," Grey said. "Like when they asked me to do 'Saturday Night Live,' I just couldn’t. I said 'No.' I was just too scared."

Grey said she was asked to return to her role on "Friends," but she wasn't able to say yes.

"When they asked me to come back, I said I couldn’t," she said. "They got someone else to play the role. It makes me sad that I would say no to continuing on 'Friends' or doing 'Saturday Night Live' because of my anxiety. The truth is, I wished I had people to help me navigate that kind of fear. But I couldn’t be there until I was there."

A representative for Grey did not immediately respond to a request for comment from TODAY.com.

Jana Marie Hupp was later cast in the role for further episodes, but Grey said she was able to face her performance anxiety when she starred on Season 11 of "Dancing With the Stars."

"When I look back at 'Dancing with the Stars,' I’m like, 'Look what I did!' But at the time I didn’t watch it because I was so busy learning the next dance that I never actually could see it," she said. "Eventually when I did look at it, it was thrilling to be able to say, 'I can’t believe I did that.'"

Grey won her season of "Dancing With the Stars," showing she was able to face her performance anxiety fears — and succeed.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com