Friends actors David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston’s on-screen tumultuous on-and-off romantic relationship is undoubtedly one of the most iconic relationships in TV history. Their relationship was the center of attention throughout the series and fans got to see multiple actors playing as rebounds for these characters.
Actress Helen Baxendale was cast as Emily Waltham in the show’s fourth and fifth seasons to play Ross Geller’s girlfriend, wife, and ultimately ex-wife. The actress once expressed her hatred towards the role, highlighting that she didn’t like the fame she got from it and how the show turned her into a speed bump in Ross Geller and Rachel Green’s relationship.
Helen Baxendale, who played Emily in Friends, hated this one thing about her role
Actress Helen Baxendale, who played Emily Waltham in Friends‘ fourth and fifth seasons, once explained that her privacy was invaded because of the role. In an interview with The Daily Mail, the actress recalled,
“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. I saw it as a gilded prison. It was something I wasn’t prepared for.”
The actress was cast in a recurring role in the show as Ross Geller’s girlfriend, wife, and ultimately ex-wife. Director James Burrows once claimed that she wasn’t as funny as Rachel Green and her chemistry with David Schwimmer wasn’t really good.
Helen Baxendale appreciates the opportunity but the fame got too much for her
Baxendale once explained that she didn’t fit in with her co-stars as she wasn’t a huge fan of the media attention. In 2022, she appeared in an interview with Independent UK and recalled,
“I saw those people in Friends, for example, and thought: I don’t think that life is really what I want. They were hounded. They weren’t able to walk into a supermarket and buy something.”
However, the actress still values that opportunity as it massively contributed to making her a well-known name in the industry. In a 2012 interview with The Mirror, she said,
“I am very proud and delighted to have been in such an amazingly successful and international show. It’s always a talking point and it was a very clever set up – even now young people especially seem to love it. But it doesn’t feel like part of my life at all now. I look upon it as a strange surreal little blip in my life almost like a dream.”
After fourteen episodes, the actress quit the show as she was pregnant with her first child. In 2000, she returned to the big screen and appeared in various TV shows and movies throughout the 2010s.
