David Schwimmer's Most Hated Friends' Scenes Will Make You Go ‘Aww’
Just appreciate the struggles he had to endure.
Although the general public isn't always aware of all the struggles that go into the actors' performances on set, it's usually not too hard to tell which scenes are more or less pleasant to film.
If the shot involves getting wet, injured, or dirty, you can imagine that the experience will not be as pleasant.
However, some scenes that audiences tend to love are hell on the actors. For Friends star David Schwimmer, who played Ross Geller on the show, that was pretty much every episode he had to film with a monkey co-star named Katie.
What's worse, the monkey appeared in about 8 episodes at a time.
As funny as the idea was, the reality of working with an animal on set was more work than anyone on the crew could have ever imagined. There were constant delays and reshoots of every possible take, which caused a lot of tension and resentment on the set.
Not only that but the monkey was so overprotected by the trainers that Schwimmer couldn't even bond with him. Of course, there were good intentions behind this decision, but it made the filming process even more difficult and translated to the screen. Ross and his precious Marcel had no chemistry in the end.
David Schwimmer didn't even try to hide his irritation. In a 1995 interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor spoke harshly about Marcel's storyline and his difficult relationship with his non-human co-star:
“I hate the monkey … I wish it were dead. The trainers won’t let me bond with it. They’re really, really possessive. It’s like, ‘Land on your marks, do your job, don’t touch or bond with the monkey.’ It’s a bummer,” the actor said.
Not everybody was so appalled by the monkey’s presence on set. Matt LeBlanc, who had a couple of scenes with Katie, actually found working with it a pretty comfortable experience. The actor had to add, though, that he spent significantly less time working with the animal, so he wouldn’t know all the hardships.
If you want to re-watch Marcel’s short but very memorable run on Friends, you can go ahead and stream the series on Netflix, MAX or FuboTV.
Source: Entertainment Weekly