David Schwimmer has scored and nailed a lot of roles over the course of his three-and-a-half-decades-spanning career, with a majority of them earning him tremendous acclamation. And yet, out of all of them, none comes as close to iconic as his role as Ross Geller in the smash hit sitcom that launched him to global recognition: FRIENDS.
Not only did Schwimmer earn worldwide fame and commendation from fans and critics alike, but this role also won him a star-studded $1 million salary per episode. But before his performance as Ross Geller, the actor had one other surprising dream role that Marvel actor Sir Ian McKellen brought to life: The evil antagonist Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello.
Before FRIENDS, David Schwimmer Wanted to Play Iago
To think that the one who perfectly embodied the goofy but lovable character of Ross Geller in the FRIENDS saga actually had a dream role of bringing an evil villain like Iago to life doesn’t quite sit well. But with David Schwimmer, this was only the truth.
As the actor confessed in an interview, he was truly in love with classical theatre while studying in Los Angeles. And this love was further boosted by Sir Ian McKellen, who iconically brought the Othello antagonist to life through the titular drama from 1990.
In fact, surprisingly enough, Schwimmer was anything but bothered by McKellen’s character’s true personality and his immoral traits. As he revealed to The Guardian:
I’ve always wanted to play Iago. He’s a sociopath, but he’s a charming sociopath.
But why only Iago? Out of all the characters in the classical world whom he could bring to life onstage, why did this particular villain catch his fancy the most?
Growing up in junior high school and high school, I never felt like I was in the cool crowd. I always felt quite envious and that’s a great motivator. Envy and jealousy. Desire.
Needless to say, that does come as a surprising confession from someone who once played one of the most lovable characters of all time in one of the biggest fan-favorite sitcoms ever created.
At the same time, the depth with which Schwimmer looked at the character only makes his choice understandable.
But what’s even more surprising than all of this is perhaps the actor candidly revealing just how “frustrated” he was from the fame his performance as Ross Geller brought him — which, ironically, also earned him a paycheck of $1 million per episode (via The Guardian)!
David Schwimmer Found His Fame as Ross Geller “Frustrating”
During the same interview, Schwimmer also shared one other major problem that many actors associated with the sitcom genre have to go through: Getting pigeonholed into the same role, even after leaving their respective characters behind.
As Schwimmer said:
There was a period that I was very, very frustrated by being pigeonholed in this one genre, this one idea. I got Friends when I was 27 but I had done all this work on stage. But all that was just eradicated.
Unfortunately for him, his iconic performance of the character was so thoroughly immaculate that he went on to be associated with Ross for a long, long time, even after not playing the character anymore.
And, obviously, for Schwimmer, this was anything but okay, because it was leading to his other works being put in the backseat.
As the actor himself continued to candidly complain:
As far as the public was concerned, I came out of the womb doing sitcom. So that was frustrating, as if it obliterated all the other training, all the other roles I had done.
Well, as annoying as this one problem may be, the blame still rests on David Schwimmer: Why did he have to be such a perfect Ross Geller; so perfect that fans can’t envision anyone else playing the character? (Not that we’re complaining, of course, we love our Ross Geller too much to complain about him!)
You can stream FRIENDS on Max.
