If you’re a major Friends fan, then there’s probably not a single episode you haven’t seen or line you can’t quote.
When the series was finished and the cameras stopped rolling, a lot of secrets came out about the show that, even to this day, a lot of us had no idea about.
RELATED STORIES
1. Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow admitted that they don’t typically watch the reruns.
Lisa explained that if she sees that it’s on, she has to check her mood to see how she’s feeling before she’ll watch it. “If I’m in a bad mood, I’m not going to like seeing myself at all,” she said .
2. They also revealed that if they could go back in time, they never would have stopped filming after Season 10.
Quick! Someone find a time machine so we can get more Friends !
3. Matt LeBlanc revealed to James Corden on *The Late Late Show* that Joey didn’t always have his signature black hair.
Early on, in fact, he started to go gray around the temples, and he had to constantly dye his hair black throughout the seasons!
He said that he wanted to try coloring his hair at home since it took hours for them to do in the studio.
He came to work the next day with his ears black and faced what we can only imagine was an unimpressed makeup artist.
THIS IS BRAND NEW INFORMATION!
4. He also revealed that, while filming “The One Where No One’s Ready,” he dislocated his shoulder during a scene where he had to jump into the armchair.
And that explains why Joey was wearing a sling for the following episode!
He said that they had shot that scene in front of a live audience who had all won a contest to be in the studio that day.
When he fell, they all thought it was part of the scene, but in reality, he was in a lot of pain, and they had to send everyone home!
5. There’s an episode in *Friends* where the girls learn how to play poker.
In real life, however, the cast actually learned how to play in director James Burrows’ dressing room, and that’s what the episode was based on.
6. The cast revealed that they would hang out at each other’s homes and watch the episodes as they aired for the first few years.
I can imagine that, by the time you’re seven years in, it can get old.
Courteney Cox was on *Seinfeld* and learned from working there that the cast really can really help one another.
So, she suggested that everyone provide notes to each other on the characters to improve themselves, and they did!
7. Lisa Kudrow was pregnant in real life, and the writers didn’t want to have to come up with sneaky tricks to hide her growing belly.
Instead, they came up with the story line of Phoebe having her brother’s triplets!
Unfortunately, the timing never worked out with the size of Lisa’s belly.
So they still had to hide how big it was at times, and they also had her wear padding when she needed to appear larger than she was.
8. Matthew Perry said that he knew the show was going to be huge after filming “The One With The Blackout.”
In that particular episode, he filmed his scenes separate from the rest of the friends who were in Monica’s apartment.
He said that being able to watch from afar, seeing what the show looked like from a distance, helped him realize that it would be a success.
And he wasn’t wrong!
9. Courteney Cox admitted that it was Matthew Perry who gave her Monica’s personality for the 10 years they worked together on *Friends*.
That makes sense because Chandler was always the funniest one.
10. Matthew explained that all of his real-life friends were auditioning for the role of Chandler before he did.
Apparently, he was even giving them advice on the character for their auditions.
He said that some of them actually got pretty far in the audition process — we’re glad that he eventually auditioned and landed the part for himself!
I couldn’t imagine anyone else as Chandler.
11. Jennifer Aniston was actually never a fan of the “Rachel” haircut that was once so famous.
Although the style only lasted for a season, Jennifer never knew how to style it, which made for a pretty annoying haircut.
What a lot of people don’t know is that, apparently, her hairstylist was “loaded” when he gave her the haircut, according to Jennifer.
I’m not sure I would trust anyone under the influence to cut my hair, but you do you, Jen.
12. Jennifer also revealed just how difficult it was to film a comedy show in front of a live studio audience.
She explained that, when big film actors would appear on the show as a guest star, even they would be scared because of the live audience.
13. Lisa Kudrow had a hard time remembering the name of her costars way back in the day.
She knew Courteney Cox because “she was the famous one” but then admitted that she forgot Jennifer Aniston’s last name.
She says that she knew it wasn’t Anderson, though, so she referred to her only as “Jennifer Not Anderson.”
It must be funny to look back and laugh at the fact that she couldn’t remember her now-best friend’s name.
14. Courteney Cox revealed that her character, Monica, could annoy her pretty badly from time to time.
She said she liked that Monica was a funny character, but she admitted that she would never get excited about a label maker like Monica would.
15. It was no secret that, by the final season, the cast was making one million dollars an episode — each.
But it was actually David Schwimmer who initiated the idea that everybody stick together to negotiate a raise. What a guy!
16. The cast weren’t fans of the intro.
Jennifer Aniston revealed that the cast wasn’t very into the opening shots. “We felt it was a little… I don’t know… dancing in a pond? A fountain felt sort of odd.”
She said they only did it because they “were told to.”
The fountain wasn’t even in New York or anywhere close — it’s actually in Burbank, California on the Warner Brothers’ Ranch.
17. Cole Sprouse, one of the twins who played Ben, had a hard time acting with Jennifer Aniston.
“I had a really, really hard time working with Aniston because I was so in love with her,” Cole revealed in 2017. “I was infatuated. I was speechless — I’d get all bubbly and forget my lines and completely blank … It was so difficult.”
So cute!
18. None of the cast were on board with Rachel and Joey getting together.
Matt LeBlanc said that the cast went to the creators of the show with their concerns at the time. “It felt wildly inappropriate. That’s how close we all were to the character,” he said.
Matt specified that everyone got defensive about the subject.
“I was like, ‘That’s Rachel. She was supposed to be with Ross. Wait a minute.’ Everybody got super-defensive about the whole thing.”
Luckily, it all worked out in the end!
19. David Schwimmer thought that Ross getting divorced a third time went too far.
“The whole arc of the relationship was weird then,” he said , “because for him to be able to move on enough to marry someone else and then go back to being in love with Rachel later just went a bit too far.”
These are some super interesting facts!
Obviously, we don’t know anything about the behind-the-scenes secrets when our favorite shows are airing, and the cast generally doesn’t want to give too much away about the creative process when filming is still going on, so it’s awesome that we get the chance to learn this stuff now!
Is anyone else planning on having a total *Friends* Netflix marathon now? It’s been a while since I’ve watched it from season one!
Don’t forget to SHARE these crazy facts with your Friends -loving friends!
