Friends Star Stood Up for His Colleagues Despite Being the Only One in Demand
When half of Hollywood wanted to add David Schwimmer to their movies, he never let it get to his head and continued to stand up for his co-stars because that’s what Friends means.
Today, Jennifer Aniston is undoubtedly the most successful and popular actress from the main cast of Friends.
However, things were not always this way, and back in the first seasons of the much-acclaimed TV show, a different actor was haunting the dreams of most Hollywood moviemakers and making rounds in the industry.
It was David Schwimmer who first saw success out of all six co-stars. However, despite receiving movie offers one after another and being enticed to go for a raise by his agent, the Ross Geller actor felt that it would’ve been wrong.
Instead of increasing his own salary, Schwimmer decided to help his colleagues.
“We were all paid differently. Some had low quotes; some had higher. <...> I’m being advised to go in for more money. But, for me, it goes against everything I truly believe in, in terms of ensemble. The six of us are all leads on the show. We are all here for the same amount of hours. The storylines are always balanced,” David Schwimmer explained to Vanity Fair.
His noble attitude did not go unnoticed by the rest of the cast: at that point, all six actors were good friends, and the others were immensely thankful to Schwimmer.
"During that first year — David's year — he showed up one day at my dressing room. <...> [He said,] ‘When we renegotiate our contracts, we should do it as a team. We should all get paid the same amount.’ <...> I could not believe what he was saying. Needless to say, I was thrilled,” Matthew Perry wrote in his recent memoir.
Thanks to David Schwimmer’s tactic, all six actors from the main cast of Friends started making the same amount of money starting from Season 3, and until the very end, no one felt like they were being stepped over.
The actor’s “generosity of spirit,” as Perry put it, ensured that the Friends actors could remain actual friends without financial inequality standing in the way.
Source: Vanity Fair; Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing