Friends co-creator Kevin Bright says Julia Roberts only made her memorable cameo in the show after star Matthew Perry granted her a very specific request.
Roberts appeared as an old classmate of Chandler Bing’s (Perry), who reconnects with him in the iconic 1996 two-parter The One After the Superbowl.
In a new oral history of the episode, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Bright and co-creator Marta Kauffman broke down the episode with The Hollywood Reporter, revealing how all the pieces fell into place, and Roberts’ unusual route to appearing in the show.
Getting Julia Roberts was incredibly exciting,” Kauffman said. “We knew she would have the right touch for it. And when she said yes, it was pretty awesome.”
“Do you know the story of how we got her?” Bright responded. “Matthew asked her to be on the show.
He expanded: “She wrote back to him, ‘Write me a paper on quantum physics and I’ll do it.’ My understanding is that Matthew went away and wrote a paper and faxed it to her the next day.
Friends is set to return for a one-off unscripted special on the HBO Max streaming service this year.
The upcoming one-off show was recently postponed to March 2021 in light of the coronavirus pandemic. The special was originally due to film last March.
Work is “definitely” underway on the show though, according to Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), who recently revealed she’s already shot a scene for the special.
Appearing on Rob Lowe’s Literally! podcast, said that the show is set to begin filming in “early, early spring,” adding that she “pre-shot something for it already, so we’re definitely doing it”.
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