Friends Star Hated His Stereotypical Character For Being a Total Jerk
Who would know that he is such a softie?
One of the most popular shows ever, Friends really tackled lots of issues throughout its 10-season run. There were love triangles, every kind of bad decision-making, betrayals, worst possible romances and so much more.
But there is one storyline that has aged worse than any other: it's the one with Rachel and Paolo (and Phoebe). Paolo's character was introduced at the beginning of the show, he was this handsome macho Italian that Rachel had a huge crush on.
Although their relationship was mostly... horizontal, Rachel still seemed to care about him.
Fans cringed at the relationship, but still understood why Paolo happened to her.
“They were both young, hot and horny. It was obviously not going to be a serious long lasting relationship but Rachel deserved to have some fun after Barry. Unfortunately, Paolo was a creep so he had to go,” Redditor MapThink769 said.
Everything changed when the writers of the show decided to make things uglier and change Paolo's image to a total jerk. There's a storyline where he goes to a massage session provided by Phoebe and "hits on" her.
That was the phrase used in the shoe, although now we understand that it was not exactly hitting on her, it was outright sexual assault.
But at the time, Cosimo Fusco, the actor who played Paolo, wasn't happy about taking part in such a sleazy scene.
In an interview with The Guardian, he spoke openly about his feelings about the scene. He said he felt terrible about having to touch her in an inappropriate way. He thought it was disrespectful to Italian guys, as if they were all like that.
However, the showrunners along with the writers offered the actor a compromise and in the end he was comfortable with what he had to portray on screen.