Actor Randy Vasquez still remembers the Friends role that almost was.
During an appearance on Wednesday’s episode of the Patrick LabyorSheaux With Patrick Labyorteaux podcast, Vasquez revealed that he once got a role on the iconic ’90s sitcom during its early days, only to be abruptly fired soon after.
“I got cast on the fourth episode of Friends and I got fired after the reading by Jim Burroughs,” the 64-year-old recalled. “We did the reading. I walked back to my green room… and I called my agent. ‘Hey, what’s going on?’ ‘They just fired you. They just let you go.’ And right as my agent was telling me that, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow walk in.”
Vasquez remembered ending the call with his agent and breaking the news to Kudrow and Aniston, the latter of whom he said was “mortified.”
“It scared the crap out of her,” Vasquez shared. “They were feeling so bad for me. I said, ‘Well, good luck. I hope it [works out].'”
The cast of ‘Friends’ in 1994
Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
As the actor reasoned, the show was in such early days and none of the stars who would become a household name had hit their stride yet. “This was before it was a hit — this is only the fourth episode. None of those guys, nobody knew who they were,” he explained. “I’ve been on sitcoms where actors have come into the first reading and then they’re not there anymore. They cut characters. They have to cut stuff for the time element. And you know, Jim Burroughs, you got to think that his instincts are pretty good.”
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Still, the Knots Landing alum admitted he was bummed as he walked out of the studio on the Warner Bros. lot. But before the actor got too far down the street, another series star came along to offer some words of comfort — Matthew Perry.
“Randy, they just told me, I’m so sorry. Oh my god. I had a job one time on a movie and they flew me out to Florida and I walked off the plane and somebody came up to me and said, ‘They just wrote your character out,'” the actor recalled Perry telling him. “I know what it’s like, man. Just hang in there and I’m so sorry.”
Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry on ‘Friends’
NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
While Vasquez lost his shot at getting in on Friends’ early success, he’s made his mark with roles on shows like Acapulco H.E.A.T., Love Boat: The Next Wave, First Monday, and JAG.
And, of course, Aniston, Kudrow, and Perry became pop culture icons alongside their fellow Friends costars Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc. The cast was famously close throughout their run on the megahit NBC sitcom, which aired for 10 seasons, from 1994 to 2004.
Decades after the Friends finale, the show has endured as one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. The actors have reunited dozens of times in the 20-plus years since the show signed off, often in twos or threes. Before Perry’s tragic death at 54, the cast reunited for the last time in 2021 to celebrate the series’ legacy for HBO Max’s unscripted special Friends: The Reunion, in which they returned to their old set at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank to share laughs and tears while reminiscing.
That event was actually where all the costars gathered for the last time, Aniston revealed in an August interview with Vanity Fair.
“We did everything we could when we could,” Aniston said. “But it almost felt like we’d been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight. As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there’s a part of me that thinks this is better. I’m glad he’s out of that pain.”
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