According to Nerd Stash, Jennifer Aniston revealed her difficulties with coping with the conclusion of Friends, which transformed her into an A-list star. Rachel Green is also among the popular Friends character and arguably the main protagonist since most of the show’s storylines revolve around her. As a result, the character’s fears and concerns were detailed during the sitcom’s 10-year run.
These range from her fear of confronting her feelings for Ross to being afraid of her employment in places like Bloomingdale’s and Ralph Lauren. It’s interesting to dive deeper into what truly scared Rachel since the sitcom landscape of Friends usually masks the depth of Rachel’s personality.
Any Kind Of Confrontation
Rachel isn’t a confrontational person and ended up becoming a pushover in order to avoid facing off against someone. Conflicts scare her because Rachel is the type who retreats into a shell when a person is bearing down upon her in anger.
Rachel didn’t accept the fact that Chandler would be moving in with Monica due to having to face the reality of her situation and avoided talking to Monica until the latter made it clear to Rachel. She can be confrontational if she really feels strongly about her case but those are special circumstances.
For Things To Go Too Fast In A Relationship
Rachel had a bit of a fear of commitment earlier on in Friends, where she would freak out if things weren’t progressing according to her liking. She became scared when she realized she was in love with Ross, claiming things were far too good to be true, and worried about Ross making plans for the future.
This fear had more to do with Rachel not having been in a relationship like she enjoyed with Ross. Her other dalliances never had a strong emotional connection, which had the effect of scaring Rachel over a relationship where things were at a pace she was unfamiliar with.
To Spend Her Life Alone
Rachel never spent any point in her life by herself, going from living with her parents to almost marrying Barry, and then spending a decade with her friends. She was understandably nervous about her move to Paris, as it would have been the first time she was on her own.
However, her real fear was loneliness rather than solitude, with Rachel voicing concerns many times about the possibility of not settling down. She had a brief fling with Ross during Monica and Chandler’s engagement because of a sudden panic about this possibility, highlighting the way this fear could get to her. Even more significant was when she agreed to marry Joey despite not wanting to after Emma was born.
To Face Her True Feelings For Ross
While many fans feel Chandler and Monica are better than Ross and Rachel in Friends, the latter couple had more storylines to follow. One of these lasted an entire season where Rachel was so afraid of admitting to her feelings for Ross that she stayed in denial about them.
Rachel was held back by a mixture of anger at the whole “On a Break” situation and her still lingering love for him. In the final season, Rachel again couldn’t tell Ross she loved him, initially rejecting him before having another late realization on the plane to then pursue Ross for the final time.
To Be Yelled At
Rachel was a rather delicate personality because, even though her father had scolded her, Dr. Green had also spoiled his daughters, including Rachel. She was unequipped to listen to someone’s yelling, with Rachel seen in tears each time a person did let their anger out on her.
This was best exemplified in her interaction with Treeger, where she started crying because he was angry at making his job harder. Her crying was so common that Monica pointed out that Rachel was always crying, which again brought her to tears.
To Miss Milestone Moments In Emma’s Life
Being a mother brought some surprisingly meaningful quotes from Rachel in Friends, as this made her wiser. However, she was prone to freaking out over the possibility of Emma growing and for Rachel to miss these moments, to the point where she made a big deal out of her first birthday that Emma wasn’t even going to remember.
This fear could go rather extreme as well, such as when Rachel didn’t want to leave Emma behind when she and Ross went to Phoebe’s birthday dinner. Rachel convinced herself that “Gleba” was genuinely Emma’s first word just to avoid the chance of missing her actual first words later on.
To Be Fired From Her Job
Getting a good job was way harder than Rachel anticipated and it took her three years to finally land one. The fear of losing her employment made Rachel do wacky things, such as catering to Joanna’s every demand at Bloomingdale’s and lying about having an affair with Ralph Lauren to impress her boss Kim.
Rachel’s fear was realized when she went on an interview for Gucci and found Mr. Zelner within earshot distance, causing her to botch the interview and get fired by Zelner. Fortunately for Rachel, she generally found another opportunity not long after or could avoid getting fired.
For Her Love Interest To Be Interested In Someone Else
One aspect about Rachel that fans disliked in Friends is that she took to sabotage the relationships of her love interests. This included ruining Ross’ wedding, shaving her girlfriend Bonnie’s head, and being mean to his first girlfriend Julie. She was also cold toward Charlie when she was interested in Joey and contributed to the breakup.
Rachel didn’t always consciously want to ruin these relationships, as it had to do with her fear of seeing the person she liked move on from her. Although this was selfish, it was also a very human thing to be afraid of since it involved Rachel facing her insecurities, regrets, and true feelings, both of which she was also scared of confronting.
To Face Her Father’s Anger
Dr. Green scared just about every person he met, with his angry demeanor and being an unapologetic jerk. Rachel was his favorite daughter and spoiled her along with her sisters, but she was terrified of him reprimanding her. This fear was so great that Rachel lied about Ross getting her pregnant and refusing to marry her.
Even bringing Phoebe along to ease the blow of telling Dr. Green that she was pregnant didn’t lower her fears and Rachel initially lied about marrying Ross when her father flared up. To her credit, she later did listen to her enraged yelling when she did tell Dr. Green the truth, which is something that would have made someone like Ross and Chandler cry.
For Her Life To Be Controlled
There’s no doubt that Rachel’s best decision in Friends was to walk out of her wedding to Barry. She realized he would control her life just like her father had, which prompted Rachel to do what she wanted for once. As a result, having things decided for her scared Rachel.
She let Ross know that he wouldn’t be dictating the terms of their relationship even though she appreciated that he saw a future with her. Rachel decided she would never be scared for her own future after what happened with Barry and the possibility of such a scenario was something she was understandably scared of.
