This Actress Almost Lost Her Role on 'Friends' Because Of Her Lack of Chemistry With David Schwimmer
Through the route of its ten seasons, a lot of actors made cameos on Friends. While some of those cameos weren't nice, others were downright memorable. For example, Maggie Wheeler become so excellent as Janice and lovers loved her such a lot that her one-scene character was turned into a recurring role on the display!
On the other hand, some actors who appeared on Friends had been so dangerous that their time on the show had to be lower brief. For example, a director for the show printed Sean Penn's cameo was the worst in the show's history and that became the explanation why his character never got here back. Later on, this actress changed into almost fired from the show because the director didn’t in finding her humorous sufficient and thought she didn’t have good chemistry with David Schwimmer!
Helen Baxendale Didn’t Think She Would Get A Role in Friends And Struggled
Helen Baxendale played Emily Waltham, Ross’ female friend and later on wife, all through seasons 4 and 5 of Friends. But this actress was no longer the primary selection for the role. In fact, British actress Patsy Kensit turned into originally considered for the role of Emily but she turned it down.
Baxendale didn’t expect to be on Friends and she struggled with the fame she received for her time on the show. Although she handiest seemed in 14 episodes of Friends, her occupation and fame skyrocketed after her time on the display, which become exhausting to regulate to.
"You couldn’t walk down the street to buy a pint of milk. In fact, you couldn’t go anywhere. It was impossible to mix with the crowd, and do what ordinary people do,” the actress told the Daily Mail. "I noticed it as a gilded prison. It changed into one thing I wasn’t prepared for. But it became briefly forgotten. I don’t get the same attention now."
Ultimately, her new-found fame was too much for her. “Fame just didn’t fit in with my life. I don’t know how much would have come from staying in the States anyway. I didn’t want to live in America, when all my circumstances were leading me back to Britain. I don’t regret it for a minute.”
But the reason why Baxendale ultimately decided to leave the show was because she found out she was pregnant and wanted to focus on her family rather than her career at the time. “I'm so glad I gave up fame for a family,” she admitted.
Helen Baxendale Was Almost Fired from Friends For Not Being Funny
Although Helen Baxendale portrayed Emily in 14 episodes of Friends, the actress almost got fired from the show. In a recent interview, director James Burrows revealed that he never found Baxendale “particularly funny.” Moreover, he thought the actress lacked chemistry with David Schwimmer, who played her on-screen love interest.
Burrows thought Baxendale and Schwimmer didn’t have as much on-screen chemistry as Ross and Rachel did. “Schwimmer had no one to bounce off. It was like clapping with one hand. In sitcoms and any type of romantic comedy, the funny is just as important as the chemistry. We discovered that any new girlfriend for Ross needed to be as funny as Rachel.”
The only reason why Baxendale wasn’t fired from the show was because they were on a tight deadline.
“Often, you can’t recast, because of tight shooting deadlines or other logistical considerations,” he wrote. “You need someone who gets laughs. Sometimes you start an arc and it ain’t working out, so you have to get rid of that person. If it’s a day player, it’s a quick goodbye.”
However, the lack of chemistry played a huge role in Emily’s storyline. “If there’s chemistry, the writers go to work to figure out some way of keeping the actor.” That didn’t seem to be the case for Baxendale because her character eventually was written off the show in Season 5 when Emily and Ross called it quits after a rocky marriage.
However, Friends creator and showrunner Martha Kauffman disagreed with Burrows’ comments. In a 1998 interview with Entertainment Weekly, she highly praised Baxendale’s talents. ”Helen came in and was brilliant. It’s a difficult thing we’re asking her to do, because the audience is very resistant to that seventh person coming in. But you can see her being one of your friends,” Kauffman said
Helen Baxendale Was Never Close To The Cast Of Friends
Despite playing a key role in the fourth and fifth seasons of Friends, Helen Baxendale has revealed that she never felt like a part of the cast. From the get-go, she knew that fans wouldn’t love her character because she came in the way of Ross and Rachel. However, she didn’t expect not getting a long with the Friends cast.
"They were all really nice and professional. We had been never great buddies regardless that. People be expecting because it is known as 'Friends' that everyone was nice friends, however they have been real professionals. They'd been doing it for years and I used to be one of many visitor stars to seem," the actress defined.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTErZ%2Bippeoe6S7zGifnqSVo3qjrdeepZ2ZnJp6orjMqKqtZZykwLV5x56pZqqfobJuu81mnauhlaOxtHnBnpqaraOaerCyjKGcq2WclrCsec6fZJyglaK2tMDRsmSwoaSdeqWt1aKbZquTncSqucyeqWg%3D