“Friends” director James Burrow said that British actress Helen Baxendale — who played Ross Geller’s love interest during the series’ fourth season — did not quite fit the show because, while very nice, she was “not particularly funny.”
Burrow, whose director credits include episodes of “Cheers” and “Will & Grace,” made the comments in his new memoir, “Directed By James Burrow” — where he said that the end result was the other actors, particularly Ross Geller actor David Schwimmer, had no real foil for their own comedic scenes when Baxendale was onscreen.
“She was nice but not particularly funny. Schwimmer had no one to bounce off. It was like clapping with one hand,” Burrow recalled, adding, “In sitcoms and any type of romantic comedy, the funny is just as important as the chemistry. We discovered that any new girlfriend for Ross needed to be as funny as Rachel.”
But time may have been a factor, as Burrow noted, adding that often because of shooting deadlines and actors’ schedules, it was impossible to recast such roles even if the fit was not right.
“You need someone who gets laughs. Sometimes you start an arc and it ain’t working out, so you have to get rid of that person. If it’s a day player, it’s a quick goodbye,” Burrow continued. “The reverse is also true. If there’s chemistry, the writers go to work to figure out some way of keeping the actor.”
For her part, Baxendale was largely complimentary of the “Friends” cast and grateful for her own time on the show – but also noted that she had not really been ready for the kind of fame she achieved even from her brief stint as Emily opposite Schwimmer’s character.
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“I had a little glimpse of what fame holds, and I decided it held a load of nothing. It contained nothing that mattered. Some people can deal with that well; it sits on their shoulders fine. But it wasn’t for me,” she told The Daily Mail in 2012. “I saw it as a gilded prison. It was something I wasn’t prepared for. But it was quickly forgotten. I don’t get the same attention now.”
“Fame just didn’t fit in with my life. I don’t know how much would have come from staying in the States anyway. I didn’t want to live in America, when all my circumstances were leading me back to Britain. I don’t regret it for a minute,” she said.
