Shortly before landing the role of Rachel on Friends, Jennifer Aniston’s agent warned her that she “had to lose 30lbs if she wanted to stay in Hollywood.”

According to author Saul Austerlitz’s new book, Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era, which celebrates Friends’ 25th anniversary, Jennifer experienced a lot of criticism about her weight and appearance while on the show.

“She had to lose thirty pounds if she wanted to stay in Hollywood,” Austerlitz wrote.

“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 levelling with her.”

Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green (Photo by NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)

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Aniston had received a call-back and was told to wear a leotard. According to Generation Friends, she joked to her agent, “This’ll blow it for me,” who “responded seriously.”

“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 ten pounds.”

The actress, now 50, previously told Rolling Stone about the same callback event and the chat she had with her agency in a 1996 interview.

“My agent told me straight,” Aniston told the publication 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.”

Despite the harsh words, the Rachel Green actress said that she is grateful that the criticisms prompted her to adjust her diet. She said: “I was like, ‘What?!’ But my diet was terrible. Milkshakes and French fries with gravy. It was a good thing to start paying attention.”

After making the necessary dietary changes and losing a few pounds, Aniston earned the role of Rachel Green, and her life was forever changed.

But Jennifer thinks that the actual secret to looking beautiful is happiness — and finally understanding that she doesn’t have to push herself as hard as she formerly did.

She said: “It’s hard work, you know. You work out, you just take care of yourself and you exercise. You eat right, you sleep, you’re happy.

“Happiness is the big key. My dad is 100 per cent Greek, he barely has a wrinkle. Neither did my grandmother, who was 95 when she died. My life is a happy life. It’s a choice.”

Meanwhile, Ralph Lauren has developed a Wear To Work line inspired by Rachel’s style, which includes many of Green’s unique ’90s and ’00s items updated for 2019.