Why Brad Pitt Was Apparently 'Hesitant' to Guest Star on 'Friends'

Over the 10 years that Friends was on the air, the sitcom saw a number of amazing guest stars, eve including the partners and spouses of the core cast. One of the most memorable of these episodes was when Brad Pitt, who was married to Rachel Green actress Jennifer Aniston at the time, guest starred as Will Colbert in episode nine of season eight, “The One With The Rumor.”

Will was an old high school friend of siblings Ross and Monica Geller (David Schwimmer and Courteney Cox, respectively), who helped Ross form the "I Hate Rachel" fan club back in the day.

Though the now iconic episode went flawlessly, with Pitt’s character, a former overweight geek from their Long Island High School seething with hate over the Rachel’s popular, cheerleader past, HollywoodLife reports that Pitt had reservations when he was initially approached for the role.

The show’s co-creator, David Crane, told HollywoodLife at the AT&T 5G Friends Fan Experience that Pitt almost didn’t take the part, “Only because he’d never done TV in front of an audience, and it’s a very specific skill set. I think it’s probably a little intimidating if you haven’t done it before.”

Crane also admitted that the Ad Astra star was one of the only actors they really wanted for the part. He explained, “Obviously, it was up to him, and it was up to [Jennifer], and it was just a great piece of casting. When he said yes, we were thrilled.”

It definitely all worked out in the end. Now the episode is a fan-favorite, and Pitt even got nominated for an Emmy for his performance!