Sigh. This is not a good year for die-hard Friends fans. We’re talking disappointing ‘reunions’ and not to mention co-creator Marta Kauffman breaking our hearts with the news that a reboot ‘will never happen’. Admittedly, the only thing that kept us going was the prospect of a Friends Fest tour...
But nothing will ever satisfy our need to see our favourite fictional buddies on the screen once more. And E4 most certainly does not count. Yet Ross (sorry, David Schwimmer), has revealed the darker side to the hit nineties show. Yes, as much as we enjoyed botched spray tans, his failed marriages and his on-off relationship with Rachel - it wasn't all it was made out to be for Schwimmer.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Schwimmer reflected on his overnight fame and its impact on his personal life. ‘It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationships to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to adjust to and become comfortable with,’ he admitted.
With over a decade on the show playing the loveably goofy Ross Geller, the role soon took control of his career too.
‘As an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, so I used to walk around with my head up, really engaged and watching people,’ he explained. ‘The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite: it made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen’.
The show undoubtedly gained monumental success worldwide and we grew to love the group as though they were friends of our own. Though the boundaries between on-screen Ross and Schwimmer soon blurred, leaving us all a little confused.
‘You lived with us for 10 years, we are part of the family, in a way,’ Schwimmer continued. ‘In our show I'm the same guy for 10 years, you can rely on me to be a certain way and you know me - or you think you know me’.
Schwimmer did eventually made a comeback, but he stayed out the spotlight by turning his hand to directing, with films Run, Fatboy, Run and Trust on his CV.
Now it all makes sense that Schwimmer waited this long to appear in new series, The People Vs OJ Simpson, in which he played the role as father to the Kardashian clan. Despite admitting that he had not even heard of Kim K…
Typical Ross.
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