Friends was one of the most iconic TV shows of all time, with not only a stellar cast, but some of the most famous guest stars in the world.
The core cast of Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matt Le Blanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer played opposite the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon and Christina Applegate, with celebrities banging down the door to be a part of the hit show.
One of the guest stars at the time was teen heartthrob and husband of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr.
Playing the memorable “manny” Sandy, Prinze appeared in The One With the Male Nanny where his character was applying to look after Ross and Rachel’s baby, Emma.
But in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Freddie revealed that he wasn’t actually supposed to play that role. In fact, it was supposed to go to someone very famous: Hollywood heavyweight, Tom Hanks.
“I wasn’t even supposed to be [Sandy], that was originally offered to Tom Hanks but he wasn’t gonna make it back from his film on time,” he said.
“And so my agent called me and said, ‘Do you want to be on Friends? And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do an episode of Friends. That’ll be great.’
“‘Yeah, it shoots tomorrow.’ and I was like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yes, tomorrow so I’ll send you the script.’”
According to the 43-year-old, he “didn’t even get to do a read-through”, but Schwimmer made him feel completely at ease.
“David Schwimmer walked into my dressing room and he was so cool and so passionate and he had so much energy,” the father-of-two said.
“He came into the room and was like, ‘You’re going to love this, man. It’s like a little two-act play and the crowd is so engaged, and so into it. You’ll have a ton of fun, don’t worry about a thing.’”
Freddie’s character had many special tricks up his sleeve when it came to looking after baby Emma, including lulling her to sleep with a recorder.
For the last four hours of his day on set, he had to learn how to play it — and once again, Schwimmer was on-hand to lend support.
“And [Schwimmer] was like, ‘I heard you practising, man. You’re going to crush the song,’” Prinze recalls. “I told him he shouldn’t have said that because it’s bad luck. But he was like, ‘No! You’re going to crush it.’”
While Freddie’s sensitive Sandy was certainly a highlight, he had his own favourite guest stars, whom he’d love to see reprise their roles if there was ever a reunion.
“If they got someone like Paul Rudd to come back in his role so we can see what he’s been up to since then, I think that would probably be more exciting.
“Or if they could pull off another Brad Pitt, or a creepy Winona Ryder performance that would be great, too. Those are my favorite guest stars that they brought in.”
WATCH: Sandy teaches Joey Hot Cross Buns on The One With The Male Nanny on Friends.