Jennifer Aniston reacted to the news that the “Friends” reunion for HBO Max was delayed once again due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Speaking with Deadline, the actress, 51, said the announcement was unfortunate, as the production to bring together the entire cast of the beloved sitcom has been postponed three times already.
“It’s very sad that we had to move it again,” she began. “It was, ‘How do we do this with live audiences?’ This is not a safe time. Period. That’s the bottom line. It’s not a safe time to do it.”
The unscripted program was scheduled to film on the Warner Bros. original sound stage in March as the lockdown began. It was then pushed back to May, then rescheduled again for August.
There is no set date for taping to begin as of yet, but Aniston remains optimistic that the special will still be… very special for the fans.
“It’s going to be super. You know what? This has also given us more time to make it even more exciting and more fun than it would have been,” she explained. “So I choose to see it as the glass is half-full that it got postponed.”
“You’re never going to get rid of ‘Friends,’ sorry. You’re stuck with us for life guys.”
Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry have all been confirmed to appear with Aniston for the reunion.
At the time of the first delay, WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer chairman Bob Greenblatt told Variety that he hopes the special will still be filmed in front of a live-studio audience.
“We do think there’s a value to having a big, raucous live audience to experience these six great friends coming back together,” he explained. “And we didn’t want to just suddenly do it on a web call with, you know, six squares and people shooting from their kitchens and bedrooms.”
Meanwhile, Aniston summed up her thoughts on how difficult the year has been so far.
“I’m supposed to renew my drivers license and I don’t want it to say 2020 on it,” she confessed. “I just want to get 2020 out and behind us.”
