Courteney Cox highlights all the magic that went into making “Friends”
Friends was a magical phenomenon of a TV show that none of us will ever forget. Considering re-runs of the sitcom run daily, it’s pretty impossible to forget it anyway. Not that we would ever want to, though. In an interview on Off Camera with Sam Jones, Courteney Cox talked about the chemistry that all the actors had while making Friends.
And it’s a chemistry we will feel in our hearts forever.
Jones noted that 16 million people still watch Friendsevery time it airs (we are definitely part of that statistic). He asked Cox if she notices the massive recognition of the show. She said that yes, she sees that happening still, even with kids her daughter’s age (Coco is 13 years old). And that proves how timeless and relatable Friends was and continues to be.
Cox said that a lot of the success of the show can be attributed to the insane chemistry between the cast and crew.
"That was lightening in a bottle. To have those writers, those creators of the show, the team they put together and the actors — it just worked. The casting was perfect, it really was."
A lot of that chemistry had to do with how ridiculously hilarious all five stars of the show were together. They were so funny, that often times, the audience would give them such long applause breaks, the editors would have to edit it out.
Too much applause definitely seems like a good problem to have.
“On Friends, we didn’t ever sweeten the laughter,” Cox said. “We would sometimes have to cut it out because it would be so long. I remember when I did this seen with Matthew where we were in London and we came out of the covers for the first time, and that was like the big reveal that we were together … and that was the longest laugh. We were just sitting there frozen forever.”
If a joke wasn’t working during a live taping though, meaning the audience wasn’t laughing, the writers would change it up right there on the spot. Which is probably why every single joke worked every time in every episode and why the show still hits home for so many people.
Check out the interview clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urx-9qX1hwM?feature=oembed
FYI, if you’re feeling super nostalgic right now, you can watch all 10 seasons of Friends on Netflix. Binge away.