Jennifer Aniston Found Her First Audition Tape While Cleaning Closets

Before she hit it big on Friends, Jennifer Aniston had a few roles on short-lived TV shows, including a Ferris Bueller TV series, and the movie Leprechaun. She’d been trying to break in since she was a teenager, and now that she’s staying at home under self-isolation, she uncovered her earliest audition.

Aniston appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Earlier in the show, she presented a $10,000 Postmates gift certificate to Kimball Fairbanks, a cardiovascular nurse from St. George, Utah who’d contracted coronavirus (COVID-19) and is under quarantine. When Kimmel interviewed Aniston, she shared the story of her audition tape. 

Jennifer Aniston is spending self-isolation organizing her closets

Aniston realized she had to pace herself because she was going to have her whole home Marie Kondo’ed in the first week of isolation.

“I had to pull back because I was going to run out of closets,” Aniston said. “30 more days, I have to pace myself.”

She’s also finding simple pleasures in household chores.

“Not only do I clean constantly, dishes is now my new favorite thing in the world,” Aniston said. “Not only are you doing your dishes, you’re washing your hands a lot.”

Jennifer Aniston found her old audition tape

One of the closets Aniston organized in her first three weeks of isolation contained buried treasure. 

“The treasure that I found, one was a Betamax, an old from the old VCR days and it was my first audition,” Aniston said. “I was 13 for Search for Tomorrow, which was a soap opera my dad was on back then. I’m dying to see it but I was 13 years old. I thought I’d lost it forever but it was just cleaning out tons of old boxes. I’ll get it transferred and I will show you.”

Jennifer Aniston went behind her father’s back

Aniston learned about the audition when she visited her dad one day at work.

“The character’s name was TR and she was a 13-year-old runaway,” Aniston said. “I had been visiting my dad at the set. Search for Tomorrow shot in New York back then. I heard on the bulletin board, it was an audition for TR, 13-year-old runaway. I was like, ‘That’s me without the actual runaway part.’

John Aniston did not want his daughter joining the cast.

“Oh no, no, no, absolutely not,” Aniston said. “That’s why I actually went around his back [and] I called his agent. I know how to make things happen. I auditioned, I thought I did great, I was sure I was going to get it and I was also like, ‘My dad’s on the show, come on.’”

Another future celebrity landed the role 

Aniston did not appear on Search for Tomorrow when she was 13. However, another future star did.

“I lost the part,” Aniston said. “I did not get the part. Jane Krakowski got the part.”

Kimmel suggested asking Krakowski if she could find her audition tape for Search for Tomorrow.

“Let me tell you something, that would be incredible,” Aniston agreed. “If we could dig that out, that would be awesome.”