But according to Saul Austerlitz’s new book,Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era, Schwimmer was reluctant to sign onto Warner Brother’s sit-com pilot back in 1994.
Friendscreators Marta Kauffman and David Crane had actually wanted him for a pilot calledCouplesearlier, but the network insisted they pick someone else at the time. While writingFriends, though, they kept Schwimmer in mind as their ideal Ross.
“They were ready to offer him the role without even having to audition — a rare privilege for a young, untested actor,” Austerlitz writes. “There was only one problem: Schwimmer did not want to do the show. More than that, he did not want to do any more television at all.”
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Noah Wyle onER.Chris Haston/NBC
Mitchell Whitfield (who was eventually cast as Rachel’s jilted fiancé, Barry) andWill & Grace’sEric McCormackalso auditioned for Ross. Finally, Schwimmer read theFriendsscript at the behest of his agent; he “was pleased to learn that their new show was to be an ensemble series, with no designated star,” Austerlitz writes. “This could be a television series that worked a bit more like a theatrical troupe.”
He also took a call from legendary director James Burrows, who pointed out the role had been written with him in mind. He agreed to read for the role and blew the room away. “The role of Ross was like an off-the-rack suit that did not require any tailoring for Schwimmer to wear,” Austerlitz writes. “He could simply put it on. It already fit perfectly.”
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Schwimmer seemed to speak to his anxiety about working in television in a1995 cast interviewwithOprah Winfrey. The talk-show host asked how the actors — who famously remained close friends in real life as they sky-rocketed to stardom — first bonded on set.
“The taping of the pilot was probably the first thing [we bonded over],” Schwimmer said. “The reality of the business is that we don’t know if the pilot’s going to be picked up, so everyone was kind of keeping their distance and not really investing too much emotionally in the other people, I think. … There’s also the reality that any one of us could be removed after the pilot. It’s happened a lot in the business.”
“It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to adjust to and become comfortable with,” he toldThe Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast in 2016. “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. The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite: It made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen.”
He added: “And I realized after a while that I was no longer watching people; I was trying to hide,” he continued. “So I was trying to figure out: How do I be an actor in this new world, in this new situation? How do I do my job? That was tricky.”
OnceFriendswrapped in 2004, Schwimmer turned to directing and acting on stage. He made a splashy return to the small screen in 2016 as Robert Kardashian inAmerican Crime Story:The People v. O. J. Simpson, earning an Emmy nomination.
Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Erais on shelves now.
source: people.com
