After over 30 years in the business, Friends actress Jennifer Aniston has been open about the realities of aging in Hollywood. She even recently got a rude awakening, when she was informed that Cole Sprouse — who was 7 when he played Ross Gellar’s son Ben on the beloved sitcom — is now 30 years old. Yes, it’s been nearly two decades since Rachel Green and the other Central Perk patrons last graced our television sets via NBC, but thanks to the magic of artificial intelligence, we can now imagine what those characters looked like decades earlier — as toddlers! So how close did the A.I. come to the actors’ actual childhood pics?
London residents Luca and Anna Allievi recently used A.I. technology to recreate Ross, Rachel, Monica Gellar, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing and Phoebe Buffay as little kids. So we wondered how those creations compared to actual photographs of Jennifer Aniston and the rest when they were youngsters. Let’s take a look at what we could find. First, check out these stunning A.I. creations:
It’s actually frightening how much those artificial toddlers resemble the Friends characters, down to their hairstyles and clothing options. But how do they compare to the actors? Jennifer Aniston shared an old photo of herself with her parents to Instagram, which we can compare to the one above:
While A.I. Toddler Rachel looked like she came straight from hair and makeup with that stylishly messy ‘do, young Jennifer Aniston was rocking some serious bangs that don’t do justice to the woman whose “The Rachel” hairstyle would become a phenomenon. Their faces, however, definitely have some similarities, and somehow their expressions are identical!
When it comes to A.I. Toddler Phoebe, her bright clothes and blonde waves are instantly recognizable as the “Smelly Cat” songstress. Young Lisa Kudrow, however, was actually brunette:
While Lisa Kudrow was not a toddler in this photo with her parents, you can still see that her face looks a lot like the A.I.-created image, and the length and style of her hair are the same in each pic!
For A.I. Toddler Monica, meanwhile, it is all. about. the. eyes. The technology captured those big blue stunners that make the photo identifiable as Courteney Cox’s character. But how does it compare to her actual childhood photos? Take a look:
Not bad! I’m blown away by the side-part she’s got in both pics, even if Courteney Cox’s eyes aren’t as piercing in the photo of what appears to have been her first acting gig, according to the actress’ caption.
And what about Monica’s brother, A.I. Toddler Ross? You can just hear the downtrodden, “Hi,” wanting to escape from Luca and Anna Allievi’s creation, but young David Schwimmer didn’t have Ross’ three divorces hanging over his young head and was therefore in much higher spirits in a childhood photo he shared:
The expressions may be different — as well as the hair, with David Schwimmer seemingly sporting the popular bowl cut — but again, look at the eyes!
Obviously the artists were recreating the Friends characters as toddlers, not the actors, but it’s really cool to be able to look back at what Jennifer Aniston and her co-stars looked like as kids to gauge the accuracy of the Allievis and the software they used. I’d say they did a pretty impressive job!
If you want to relive any of the old Friends episodes on streaming, all 10 seasons and the reunion special are available with an HBO Max subscription (now just Max). You can also keep up with everything new coming to TV and streaming with our 2023 TV schedule.
