Julia Roberts' incredible panic on the set of Friends

“When we shot her first scene, she was green,” recalls Michael Lembeck, the director of the episode in which the Pretty Woman star participated.

Bruce Willis, Robin Williams, Isabella Rossellini, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, Reese Witherspoon, Christina Applegate… In ten years, the series Friendsgoose that lays the golden eggs of the American network NBC, was entitled to its share of guest stars. For an episode of season 2, “He who finds his monkey” (“The One After the Super Bowl, Part 2″in VO), the production called on Julia Robertsactress whose popularity exploded in the 1990s thanks to the success of Pretty Woman, Hook or The Pelican Affairand companion, at the time of Matthew Perry (Chandler).

An experience which was not the most relaxing for Julia Roberts, according to the director of the episode in question, Michael Lembeck. In the columns of Los Angeles TimesLembeck says that at the time, the actress had not performed in front of an audience for some time:

“Julia hadn't been on stage since she was 15. She then replaced (another actress) on Broadway in Agnes of God. The night of filming (of the episode), we were holding hands and watching the setup, and I told myself I was going to get gangrene if she squeezed my right hand even a bit tighter than she did. was already doing. It was just anxiety, you know, straight-up stage fright.”

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A stage fright that wouldn't have been more annoying than that, if it hadn't been so visible:

“We rehearsed all weekhe says again. Julia and Matthew were enjoying their time together on set and behind the scenes. Then it came time to move onto the couch for their first scene and Julia was green. (John) Travolta's father had this expression: 'It's like paint coming off a rubber band'. If you paint the rubber band and stretch it, the paint starts to flake off. That’s what happened with Julia.”

In the series, the actress played Susie, an old acquaintance of Chandler, whom he meets on the set of a film of Jean Claude Van Damme. The flow goes very well between the two characters, until Susie decides to make Chandler pay for the humiliation he made her suffer when they were young: pulling down her skirt in front of everyone, which means that 'she was called “Susie Panties” the rest of his schooling. Chandler thus finds himself stuck in the toilets of a restaurant wearing only women's underwear. A character of a scorned woman, based on a situation comedy whose authors Friendsand Matthew Perry, had the key, which made Julia Roberts more comfortable.

“She acted out the scene, and it provoked a laugh, then tworemembers Michael Lembeck. Matthew missed a line and the audience loved it. At that moment, Julia's posture changed, and we could see a sort of bubble forming above her head. We had the impression that she was saying to herself: 'Yes, I know that. I remember how to do it.' And she became a beast in the next scenes.”

So everything ended well for Julia Roberts, whose confidence came back to gallop to the delight of fans who, almost thirty years later, still cite Susie as one of Chandler's funniest relationships. However, what marked the director of the episode was above all the humility and simplicity that the star demonstrated:

“The first time I saw her, I walked past her, and I didn't recognize her. She had shaggy hair, she had fallen out of bed without putting on makeup, she was taller than expected… But what an angel. She laughed harder during the week than anyone else. She really had a lot of fun.”

Information that counterbalances the experience of Jennifer Aniston And Courteney Cox on the filming of this same episode, they who had to deal with the inappropriate manners of Jean-Claude Van Damme, an anecdote told in the Special Edition of First dedicated to thirty years of the sitcom, available on our online store.

Friends leaves Netflix and will arrive on Max from July 1 in France