The Friends: The Reunion special had fans all up in their feelings at seeing Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry. Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer all together in the same room again after 17 years. The special also saw them reunite with some of the show’s guest stars over the years, as well as meet some of their biggest celebrity fans.
However, many fans noticed that there were two actors who were notably missing from the reunion – Paul Rudd, who played Phoebe’s husband Mike, and Cole Sprouse, who played Ross’ son Ben.
“Well, we couldn’t have everybody on, because it’s only an hour and 45 minutes,” Friends: The Reunion director, Ben Winston, told The Wrap. “And you’ve got to pay attention — the main nub of the show has got to be about the six cast members.”
Friends ran for 10 season, with a total of 235 episodes, which makes for a long list of guest stars.
“So you can’t have too many cameos because of course, there were hundreds of amazing people who were in ‘Friends’ over the years. Sadly, we couldn’t get everybody in,” he added.
Then, there’s the pandemic which also presented some logistical problems.
“You know, we did invite some people who weren’t able to make it,” he said. “It’s a complicated time to be making television now because, you know, some people couldn’t fly internationally, some people were on other TV or film shoots, some people are in bubbles on stuff.”
Plus, juggling everyone’s schedules also presented some challenges.
“I think during a pandemic, it’s really hard to get everybody where you want to be. And the other thing, of course, is we have no flexibility. It was one night that those six (main cast members) were available,” he said.
Paul and Cole have uber busy schedules as well – per E! News, Paul appears to be overseas working on Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania. Meanwhile, Cole is in Vancouver filming Riverdale.
“The timing of it was incredibly difficult. So, you know, if you weren’t available on the seventh of April at 8 p.m., then, sadly, they weren’t able to be part of it,” Ben explained. “Yeah, we couldn’t get everybody in. It’s just one of those things. I hope people will think about all the great things that are in there rather than the things that aren’t.”
In the special, as the cast looked back on their time in the show, some juicy tidbits that fans have been dying to know were revealed – like why Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer’s chemistry on camera was so palpable.
Apparently, it’s because Jen and David ALMOST actually became a real-life Ross and Rachel.
“The first season, we– I had a major crush on Jen,” David admits in one part of the special, and Jen also admitted, “It was reciprocated,”
“At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other,” David continues. “But it was like two ships passing, because one of us was always in a relationship. And we never crossed that boundary. We respected that.”
And the reason why audiences could feel all the tension on the screen? “We just channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel,” Jen explained.
