David Schwimmer says 'Friends' made it hard for him to make friends
So no one told you fame was gonna be this way...
David Schwimmer says that he learned the limelight couldn't BE any lonelier at the height of Friends mania.
“It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to adjust to and become comfortable with," he said on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter Podcast.
All that attention also made it more difficult for Schwimmer to practice his craft.
As an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, so I used to walk around with my head up, really engaged and watching people. The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite: It made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen. And I realized after a while that I was no longer watching people; I was trying to hide. So I was trying to figure out: How do I be an actor in this new world, in this new situation? How do I do my job? That was tricky.
Ross Gellar Schwimmer sees TV stardom as a particularly difficult challenge because, in some cases, fans get used to inviting the same characters into their living rooms for a full decade and start blurring the lines between fact and fiction.
Schwimmer's most recent foray into television, playing Robert Kardashian in The People V. O.J. Simpson, analyzes the twisted side of fame. The role earned Schwimmer an Emmy nomination.
BONUS: 'Friends' starring Hamsters is your new favorite sitcom.
Topics Celebrities
Tricia Gilbride was a Reporter for Mashable Watercooler. Tricia focused on the intersection of celebrity culture and the Internet. Previously, she worked as a fashion writer and a social media manager. She also edits Women-Artists.org, a blog and annual print publication, and looks exactly like her cat.
