Why Friends' Guest Stars Were Terrified To Be On The Show
Over its decade-long run, Friends guest stars included some of Hollywood’s biggest names, yet many of them were reportedly terrified to appear on the show. Across a ten-year stint, Friends became critically acclaimed, with 62 Emmy nominations in total. It was also a cultural phenomenon and trend-maker, filling the mid-90s and early 2000s with slip dresses, “Rachel” cuts, and phrases like “Friend zone.” Friends was television gold—yet one essential element of the series terrified even the biggest of Friends guest stars.
When Friends aired on September 22, 1994, it premiered after NBC’s Mad About You and before Seinfeld. Sandwiched between two hit series with established fan bases that loved watching New Yorkers be New Yorkers, Friends was an instant hit. In its freshman outing, Friends season 1 guest stars included George Clooney, Noah Wyle, and Jennifer Grey. From there, the Friends train only picked up speed with mega-stars like Tom Selleck, Julia Roberts, Charlie Sheen, Isabella Rossellini, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Charlton Heston all appearing on the show before the turn of the century. In its final four years, Friends guest stars also included Susan Sarandon, Bruce Willis, Denise Richards, Wynona Ryder, Brad Pitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Selma Blair, Jeff Goldblum, Greg Kinnear, Danny DeVito, and Dakota Fanning, to name a few.
Related: Friends: The True Story Behind Brad Pitt’s Cameo
Yet, despite many of the guest stars’ big-screen status, Friends actress Jennifer Aniston recently told Pam & Tommy’s Sebastian Stan (via Variety) that most of the series’ guests were “terrified” to be on the show. The actress claims that the sitcom’s live audience spooked the box-office actors—something Stan readily
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