Happy St Patrick's Day! Here's something Jennifer Aniston probably hopes you don't remember: In her first major film appearance, she fought an evil leprechaun.
Just a year before Aniston's big break on Friends, Aniston starred opposite Warwick Davis in 1993's Leprechaun. In the film, Davis plays a sadistic little leprechaun who has traveled from Ireland to America to recover a stolen pot of gold — and he's willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Here's a scene in which the leprechaun chases Aniston through a hospital while cackling like a deranged maniac:
You'll be shocked to hear that the movie was poorly received — but what about its soon-to-be-famous star? "Jennifer Aniston shows that, in different circumstances, she might be competent," wrote film critic James Berardinelli at the time. High praise!
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Unfortunately, though her character survived Leprechaun, Aniston didn't reprise her role in any of the sequels — so we never got to see her fight the titular leprechaun in space or in the hood. Much later in her career, an Irish journalist asked if she had ever wanted to apologize to the people of Ireland for starring in the movie. "I should have apologized," she conceded. "But didn't that punish me enough?"
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