In late September, Friends will turn 25 years old, and to ring in the forthcoming anniversary Today did a retrospective, in which they spoke to 10 people who appeared on the show, from one-offs to semi-regular cast members. Jessica Hecht, aka Susan, wife to Carol, Ross’ ex, was one of those 10 But another was a one-off like Kristin Davis, who in the year 2000 took a break from playing Charlotte on Sex and the City to guest-star on an episode. And it almost didn’t go well.
Davis, who at the time had just wrapped the HBO giant’s third season, was tapped to play Erin, a woman Rachel and Phoebe want Joey to date. Alas, Joey’s not that into her. And Davis admitted the gig actually made her nervous.
“I remember losing sleep,” she recalled. “Sex and the City was in production, but I was nervous to be the tiny character of Erin, losing sleep, partly because of the live audience, but partly because you’re in this world that has been created that is so alive and so specific and you’re trying to make sure you’re fitting yourself in there properly. And I remember, like, ‘Will I set that joke up OK? Will Matt (LeBlanc) be happy? Will I just go blank?’ Things go through your head when you’re in those situations that are heightened like that. Obviously it was the highest of the high at that point.”
Davis also reminisced about a time, pre-Sex and the City, when she appeared on a first season episode of ER, which shot right around the corner from Friends. She and George Clooney decided, over lunch, to go watch the gang shooting. They happened to catch the classic episode where they play poker.
“[W]e sat up in the stands and watched them rehearse and it was so funny and amazing. And James Burrows was directing, whom I love so much, and to watch that show and then see that show on the air and to see that chemistry that the cast had come together,” Davis recalled. “They were so on it in terms of their voices and their characters and the beats, and they just knew what they were doing, and I remember being blown away by their confidence level and their synergy as a group.”
(Via Today)
