Téa Leoni as Rachel Green Reportedly the first choice for the role, Leoni ultimately passed on Friends to star in another sitcom for NBC, The Naked Truth, which aired for three seasons.
The role of Rachel was originally offered to Téa Leoni, the producer's first choice, and Courteney Cox, both of whom declined, Leoni in favor of starring in the sitcom The Naked Truth, and Cox in favor of playing Rachel's best friend Monica in Friends.
Before signing on as Monica Geller, Cox was actually offered the role of Rachel. And though the actress was interested in joining the show, she had another character in mind.
Craig Bierko - Chandler Bing
In the same Vanity Fair interview, Warren Littlefield, the former president of NBC Entertainment, explained that because Matthew Perry was initially tied into a pilot for Fox, he couldn't commit to the role of Chandler - so he trained actor Craig Bierko up for the role instead.
Jami Gertz (Still Standing) was offered the role of Monica before Courtney Cox was cast. Nancy McKeon (The Facts of Life) auditioned to play Monica and came close to getting the part.
The kooky character of Monica from Friends is what many people would consider to be a classic case of OCD. However, perhaps the jokes made at Monica's disorder's expense would not be so funny if the viewer could see or hear exactly what was going through her head.
She is clearly showing signs of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, and her friends don't really seem too concerned and instead mock her for it to the point that she feels self-conscious.
After auditioning for the role of Rachel, the producers were believed to have had Jane Krakowski in mind for the role. Meanwhile, Ellen DeGeneres was actually the producers' first choice to play Phoebe, but she turned it down – although considering she's now a talk show queen, we reckon she's done alright.
More than likely, the writers had to pick concise storylines and Ben didn't fit in any of them at the time. Sprouse himself has added fuel to the speculation after answering fan questions in a video for GQ in February 2019, several years after Friends ended.
Jon Cryer as Chandler?!
That's right, the gawkish “Duckie” from the classic '80s flick, “Pretty in Pink,” and "Two and a Half Men" star was nearly cast as Chandler on “Friends.” As Page Six reported, Burrows explained how Cryer taped an audition while in London and had it rushed overnight to Los Angeles.
As it turns out Kelly Kapowski was almost part of the "Friends" inner circle! That's right, hot off her role as one of the most beloved and iconic characters of the '90s, actress Tiffani Thiessen went out for the role of Rachel Green!
Lisa Kudrow was pregnant in real life when she was shooting the triplets storyline for Phoebe Buffay in Friends. The actor had earlier shared that the makers were not really into hiding the pregnancy so they wrote it into the show. The trailer of the Friends' reunion special episode sure left the sitcom fans emotional.
Way back in the very first season, we learn that Ross is in love with Rachel. Or, to put it more accurately, that he's secretly been lusting after his little sister's best friend for years and never done anything about it. You might say that he's more than a little bit obsessed, actually.
Jami Gertz auditioned and was originally offered the part by an NBC executive (via Vanity Fair). However, Crane didn't think she was Rachel, and Gertz passed on the role anyway.
Earlier in episode 4 of the same season, titled "The One With the Sharks," loyal Friends fans spotted Rachel getting replaced by a stand-in actress 12 minutes and 20 seconds into the episode.
“Kauffman and Crane understood that the Joey-Rachel relationship would end before it really began,” Miller writes. “They would never have sex or say the L-word; that would be too much to recover from. Once they actually hooked up, the characters (like the audience) would be too weirded out, and preoccupied with Ross.”
One popular theory is that the actors who played them, Jane Sibbett and Elliott Gould, left the show due to salary disputes. Another theory is that their characters were written out because the writers felt they weren't working well with the rest of the cast.
After playing her in one and only one episode, Barone quit, wanting to pursue a more full-time role, and she was replaced by Jane Sibbett.
Because her appearance on Friends was so successful, Grey was later asked to reprise her role for the show's Season 2 finale in 1996, in which Mindy weds Barry. However, she couldn't deal with the stress of it, and actress Jana Marie Hupp took over the part.
Diagnosis. The character of Phoebe displays symptoms of both ADHD and Asperger`s syndrome.
In fact, another very famous face tried out for the character, but ultimately was rejected. According to HuffPost, comedian Vince Vaughn was in the running for Joey! Friends casting director Ellie Kanner spoke to the publication back in 2015, revealing some behind-the-scenes secrets about the show.
Mitchell Whitfield As Ross Geller
However, Whitfield originally made it to the final round of auditions for Ross Geller, until Schwimmer decided to audition for the role he was meant to play.
Irene is the most concerned about Joey and is the first to realise that he is suffering from schizophrenia. Irene tries to help Joey, but he accuses her of trying to kill him and attacks her.
Monica (Courteney Cox)
Courteney has previously admitted to having the non-surgical treatment of dermal fillers to her cheeks. Filler plumps up skin sections as plumpness can be lost with the natural ageing process that both men and women go through.
“The main ones would be the lips, the neck, the ear lobes, the chest/breast or nipple area, the inner thighs, the butt, and then the genitals.” These seven primary erogenous zones certainly aren't the end-all-be-all, but they do happen to be the most common ones for women and people with vulvas.