Friends star reveals scene that was ‘impossible to shoot’

Friends star Aisha Tyler – aka Ross’ girlfriend Dr Charlie Wheeler – has lifted the lid on the scene that had them all in stitches.

Turns out it wasn’t just the audience laughing on the set of Friends.

Actress Aisha Tyler, who guest-starred as Joey and Ross’ love interest, Dr Charlie Wheeler, on the hit sitcom in seasons nine and ten, revealed in a new interview that they’d found one scene so funny it had taken 14 attempts to actually film it.

“The very last episode that I did, when I break up with Ross and get back with Greg Kinnear’s character, my ex-boyfriend, there’s a scene where we’re talking, and David comes up in the middle of the conversation and says that we’re making him uncomfortable. It took us forever to shoot that scene – like 14 takes,” Tyler, 53, told The Independent.

“I think that the British term is ‘corpsing’? I was in tears. We were all in absolute tears, including David. It was just impossible to shoot because we were laughing so hard.”

Charlie gets back together with her ex (Kinnear) in front of Ross.

The actress was initially only scheduled to appear in four episodes but ended up appearing in nine, which she described as “a bonus”. As well as The One With Ross’ Grant, featuring Kinnear, she also appeared in another top-rated episode: The One Where Ross Is Fine.

In hilarious scenes, Charlie is forced to endure a painfully uncomfortable double date with Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) when her boyfriend, Ross (David Schwimmer), discovers they’re dating and wants to convince them all he’s fine with it.

According to Tyler, it saw them once again struggle to get through their lines without breaking character.

“We all immediately erupted into laughter at the end of every take,” she admitted.

The One Where Ross Is Fine is a fan favourite.

While Tyler’s time on the show featured plenty of laughs, another guest star wasn’t quite so lucky.

In his 2023 memoir, Friends director James Burrow took a brutal swipe at British actress Helen Baxendale, who played Ross’ love interest and second wife, Emily, in earlier seasons, describing her as “nice” but “not funny.”

She appeared in 14 episodes and ended up marrying Ross, but the relationship broke down almost immediately after he accidentally blurted out Rachel’s name at the altar.

“She was nice but not particularly funny. Schwimmer had no one to bounce off. It was like clapping with one hand,” Burrow wrote in 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.

“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.