During its decade-long run as one of the most iconic sitcoms of the 90s’, FRIENDS had a ton of guest stars on it from time to time. Although most of the guest stars were a delight to work with, some others were a whole different story and an absolute nightmare. A few years ago, the executive and writing staff of the show appeared for an interview with The Hollywood Reporter and revealed how Jean-Claude Van Damme was an absolute nightmare to work with and by far one of the worst guest stars they had on the show.
A lot of guest stars appeared on The One After the Superbowl episode of FRIENDS
The One After the Superbowl was a double-length episode of the 2nd season of the series and had a lot of guest stars like Jim Cummings, Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The episode went on to become the most-viewed episode in the history of FRIENDS, with more than almost 52.9 million viewers. Although most of the stars were an absolute delight to work with, Jean-Claude Van Damme was a whole different story. Then-president of NBC Entertainment Warren Littlefield, even compared the actor to David Schwimmer’s character’s pet capuchin monkey named Marcel. He said,
“Jean-Claude Van Damme may have fallen into the category of, “Who’s more difficult to work with, him or the monkey?”
The executive producer of the show, Kevin Bright also weighed in at this point and talked about how Van Damme was a tough person to work with. He said,
“He arrived at the set three or four hours late and went straight to his trailer. So, David[Crane, the creator of the series] and I thought we’d introduce ourselves and ask him if he had any questions. We went over and he says, ‘No! First, I memorize lines. Then you give me the feeling.'”
Jean-Claude Van Damme was weirdly unprofessional with the FRIENDS stars
Jean-Claude Van Damme played a role of his himself on FRIENDS, while Monica(Courtney Cox) and Rachel(Jennifer Aniston) competed for his attention. In a few scenes, he was supposed to kiss the actresses as his character and things got uncomfortable for both the actresses. Michael Lembeck, director of both episodes described the incident and said,
“Having completely blown up our shooting day, we had to scramble. Then he’s unprepared and arrogant! But this is the story I want to share: We shoot him and Jennifer first. Then she walks over to me and says, “Lem, Lem, would you do me a favor and ask him not to put his tongue in my mouth when he’s kissing me?” I tell him everything is great but it’s a tight shot so maybe let’s not do that. Then we’re shooting a scene later with Courteney. Here comes Courteney walking toward me and saying, “Lem, can you please tell him not to put his tongue in my mouth?” I couldn’t believe it! I had to tell him again, but a little firmer.”
Despite having tough filming with Jean-Claude Van Damme, the episode, The One After the Superbowl, went on to become a massive success for FRIENDS.
Matthew Perry and Julia Roberts went on to date for almost a year after the episode aired back in 1996. Alexa Junge, a staff writer once also talked about Perry and Julia Roberts’ initial flirting off the show, revealing the crew initially helped Perry come up with witty and funny replies for the Oscar-winning actress.
FRIENDS is currently streaming on HBO Max.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
