Jennifer Aniston was told to lose 30 pounds early in her career, book claims
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Before landing her role on "Friends" and becoming a household name, Jennifer Aniston was among the many actresses trying their best to make it in an unforgiving Hollywood, according to a new book.
“She had to lose 30 pounds if she wanted to stay in Hollywood,” wrote Saul Austerlitz in "Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era" (via People magazine). “Los Angeles was a tough place to be an actress — it was a tough place to be a woman — and Jennifer Aniston’s agent was reluctantly leveling with her.”
Per the book, Aniston once received a callback where she was told to wear a leotard, and she jokingly said to her agent: “This’ll blow it for me." Her rep, in turn, “responded seriously.”
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“Aniston was hardly fat — everyone could see she was beautiful — but as the show she would one day become indelibly associated with later made a point of noting, the camera added 10 pounds," added Austerlitz.
In a 1996 interview with Rolling Stone, Aniston, now 50, recounted the same callback story and the discussion she had with her agent beforehand.
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"My agent gave it to me straight,” Aniston told the outlet at the time. “Nicest thing he ever did …. The disgusting thing of Hollywood — I wasn’t getting lots of jobs ’cause I was too heavy.”
Looking back at that moment in her life, Aniston told People magazine in 2016 that she's actually thankful it happened because it helped her make healthier diet choices.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was like, ‘What?!’ But my diet was terrible. Milkshakes and french fries with gravy,” she shared with a laugh. “It was a good thing to start paying attention.”
In 1994, Aniston was cast as Rachel Green in "Friends," which catapulted her to stardom. She is set to appear in Apple's upcoming series "The Morning Show."