The 'Friends' Cast Then vs. Now (2024)

FAQs

Did the Friends cast get along in real life? ›

After spending the better part of a decade together, the 'Friends' cast remained friends for life. Matthew Perry shared an undeniable bond with his Friends co-stars, something that was evident when the six came together for Friends: The Reunion in 2021.

Not only did it skyrocket the careers of its ensemble cast, including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, but the cast has maintained a close friendship in real life since the show went off the air.

Matt LeBlanc

Chandler and Joey in Friends had the ultimate bromance and fans will always celebrate their close friendship. And it seems it wasn't just for show. Matt LeBlanc has called his co-stars family, saying: "Courteney and Lisa are like my big sisters, but Jen's like my little sister.

Reportedly, even the cast of Friends absolutely hated the idea of Joey and Rachel getting together. But, looking at it coldly, far from the atmosphere of the early 2000s, it's not hard to notice that Rachel and Joey as a couple do add a lot of interesting elements to Friends.

Perry opened up about his three-decade long struggle with addiction in an interview with People in October 2022. His struggle with alcohol addiction was just beginning at the start of the ten-season run of “Friends,” telling the outlet that he initially had a handle on his addiction.

He was 54. Selleck had been invited to the private memorial service in Los Angeles alongside the sitcom stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer, but was unable to attend due to his shooting schedule in New York for Blue Bloods, which is set to conclude after its upcoming 14th season.

The cast's on-screen chemistry was clear from the start, propelling Friends to No. 1. At the start, the cast would get together each week to watch the show. Despite the heights to which each actor went on to soar — or dip, in some cases, especially as Perry struggled with addiction — that bond remained strong.

The cast's tight-lipped behaviour fuelled speculation that they had been instructed not to date each other. Courteney Cox reportedly even urged David Schwimmer to reveal something about their off-screen relationships, but he declined.

The actors had reportedly been paid $22,500 per episode in season one, but by season two, Schwimmer and Aniston had begun earning more than the other four actors as the popularity of on/off couple Ross and Rachel took off.

That was also the case since the producers' first choice for Phoebe was Ellen DeGeneres, but the comedian turned down the role to star in her own NBC series. A number of other actresses auditioned, including Kathy Griffin, Jane Lynch, and Megan Mullally - all of whom went on to have successful acting careers.

Why didn t Jennifer Aniston date Matthew Perry? ›

But he thought that he seemed desperate in her eyes, saying, “I could feel ice forming through the phone.” He added in the memoir, “Looking back, it was clear that this made her think I liked her too much or in the wrong kind of way.” Soon after this, Perry asked her for a date but Aniston rejected the offer.

Other actors, such as Jon Cryer, Craig Bierko, and Jon Favreau, were considered for the role of Chandler but didn't ultimately get cast. Despite missing out on Friends, these actors found success in their own careers in TV and film.

In the TV show "Friends," Rachel and Joey, who were both main characters, develop a romantic relationship in the later seasons. However, despite their closeness and growing feelings for each other, they never actually slept together on the show.

“[Writers] Kauffman and Crane understood that the Joey-Rachel relationship would end before it really began. They would never have sex or say the L-word; that would be too much to recover from,” wrote Kelsey Miller in her 2019 book I'll Be There For You, the definitive retrospective on the show.

Louis Mandylor, who plays Carl, the "fake Joey," was one of the finalists for the role of Joey when the producers were casting the show.

During the recent Friends: The Reunion, the two actors revealed that they did, in fact, have feelings for each other in real life. "The first season I had a major crush on Jen," Schwimmer said, to which Aniston added that "it was reciprocal".

Courteney Cox has put her slim physique while starring in Friends down to her smoking habit. The actress played high-maintenance Monica Geller in the hit US show, which ended in 2004.

The friendship between Perry and LeBlanc's characters on the hit sitcom Friends was unparalleled – with fans of the show often referring to their best friend as "the Chandler Bing to my Joey Tribbiani" – and the real-life friendship between the two actors was as well.