Friends director James Burrow claims recurring guest cast member was ‘not funny’

The director of the hit ‘90s show has taken a brutal swipe at a recurring cast member who didn't gel with the rest of the actors on set.

Central perk Cafe in Friends TV Show

The director of hit 1990s sitcom Friends has taken a brutal swipe at one of its guest stars claiming she was “nice. But not funny”.

James Burrow was referring to British actor Helen Baxendale who appeared in season four and part of season five as Ross Geller’s love interest Emily Waltham.

Baxendale starred in 14 episodes of Friends. She ended up marrying Ross, played by David Schwimmer, but the marriage ended almost as soon as it began after he blurted out the name of Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, at the altar.

Friends director James Burrow claims cast member was ‘not funny’

“She was nice but not particularly funny. Schwimmer had no one to bounce off. It was like clapping with one hand,” Burrow was reported by the Daily Mail as saying in his new memoir called Directed by James Burrow.

“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.

Helen Baxendale was a major character in season four of Friends and married David Schwimmer’s Ross character. Picture: NBC.

“Often, you can’t recast, because of tight shooting deadlines or other logistic considerations.

“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.”

With Baxendale locked it for multiple episodes, the show went on.

Her role on Friends came to a swifter end then predicted, despite her character’s marriage to one of the show’s lead actors, because she became pregnant and returned to Britain.

Actors Helen Baxendale and James Nesbitt on the TV show Cold Feet.

‘Never great mates’ with cast

The British actor also starred in hit UK comedy-drama Cold Feet for five seasons at around the same time as Friends.

However, she said she was “never great mates” with her Friends co-stars.

“People expect because it is called Friends that everyone was great friends, but they were real professionals,” she told UK newspaper the Sunday Mirror in 2012.

“They’d been doing it for years and I was one of many guest stars to appear.”

She said she was “proud and delighted” to be in the hit show but it seemed like a “strange surreal little blip in my life”.

Taking to the Daily Mail she said her Friends experience had been overwhelming because it suddenly made her recognisable.

“You couldn’t walk down the street to buy a pint of milk. In fact, you couldn’t go anywhere. It was impossible to mix with the crowd, and do what ordinary people do.”

Baxendale said being famous “didn’t fit in with my life,” and she didn’t regret returning to the UK after her stint on Friends rather than pursuing more work in the US.

“I saw (the fame from Friends) 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.”

Originally published as Friends director James Burrow claims recurring guest cast member was ‘not funny’