The cast of Friends shared a special bond, but a spat once threatened to ‘destroy’ their relationship.
It was the topic of money, with American actress Jennifer Aniston, 55, who played Rachel Green, revealing that the show’s bosses once suggested giving two of the show’s main characters a higher salary.
Given their increased air time during the later seasons, bosses suggested Jennifer and David Schwimmer, 58, who played Ross Geller, get paid higher.
The salary increase did not extend to the other main characters of the beloved sitcom, Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani) and the late Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing).
However, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal last year, Aniston said: ‘It would’ve destroyed us, I think, if someone was soaring financially.’
The show of commitment to their friendship enabled the team to have a relationship beyond business.
Lisa echoed Jennifer’s sentiments earlier this week and admitted that each member had to work on friendship.
The 61-year-old actress opened up about the relationship with her costars on the Armchair Expert podcast and said the ‘six-way relationship took some work’ and they ‘worked hard at being friends.’
Jennifer Anniston revealed the producer’s suggestion that could have ‘destroyed’ her friendship with the cast (pictured: Clockwise from bottom left, Courteney Cox as ‘Monica Geller’, Matt LeBlanc as ‘Joey Tribbiani’, Lisa Kudrow as ‘Phoebe Buffay’, David Schwimmer as ‘Ross Geller’, Matthew Perry as ‘Chandler Bing’, Jennifer Aniston as ‘Rachel Green’ in a ‘Friends’ group portrait)
Talking in a podcast this week, Lisa Kudrow (pictured in December) said that the six-way relationship ‘took work’
She noted that the result was the authentic chemistry between her and Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.
She said that over the course of the TV series’ 10 seasons, she and her costars became real-life friends.
For that reason, they had to make an effort to ‘really talk things through’ whenever they had any misunderstandings with each other.
‘If someone said something or did something, it didn’t get too big because it was, “Can I talk to you?'”
She said she struggled with the open communication style and explained it was ‘usually not me’ who would start the conversation first.
‘I had to learn to be like, “Can I talk to you about something?”‘ She said it was ‘hard’ because she wasn’t familiar with honest and straightforward dialogue.
She explained she ‘never knew that was allowed’ but she learned about ‘respectful communication’ from her costars.
‘I saw it modelled really well by Courteney and Jennifer and Matt,’ the 61-year-old said.
She told Shepard the ‘six-way relationship took some work’ and they ‘worked hard at being friends’
She said that over the course of the TV series’ 10 seasons, she and her costars became real-life friends. For that reason, they had to make an effort to ‘really talk things through’ whenever they had any misunderstandings with each other
Pictured from left to right: Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay) and Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green) of ‘Friends’
It comes months after she revealed she started rewatching Friends to keep the memory of her late costar Perry alive following his tragic death in October 2023.
Kudrow played alongside Perry’s wisecracking character Chandler Bing in the show from 1994 to 2004.
Following his tragic death at the age of 54 in October 2023, she said she started watching episodes to celebrate her late costar and friend.
‘Honestly, I wasn’t able to watch it because it’s too embarrassing to watch yourself,’ she told The Hollywood Reporter in June. ‘But if I make it about Matthew, then that’s OK.’
She continued: ‘And it’s just celebrating how hilarious he was — and that is what I want to remember [about him].’
She said the talent of her castmates blew her away, and she said of Perry: ‘No one ever knew that cadence or comedic rhythm before him.’
Kudrow also reflected on the days on set with Perry, who she said often left her crying with laughter.
‘You’re just laughing all day long, basically, in between the scenes, because these are funny people,’ she recalled. ‘
And especially someone like Matthew, whose goal was: How many laughs can I get in real life every day? So we were always laughing so hard, tears were flying out of our faces.’
In October, Jennifer shared never-seen-before photos of Matthew Perry to mark the one year anniversary of his shock death.
In the first image the two were seen 30 years ago when Friends was just becoming a massive hit TV show.
Jennifer still had her Rachel haircut as she was dressed in a black short-sleeved T-shirt with a gold watch on. Matthew was wearing a white T-shirt and sweat-jacket as he was goofing around with food in a photo booth.
Two other images saw them on the set of Friends and the last one was a single image of Perry smiling.
In her caption the movie icon wrote ‘1 year’ as she shared the name of his foundation. There were also emojis for a red heart, a Band-Aid and a dove.
