Brooke Shields Said Andre Agassi ‘Stormed Off the Set’ During Her ‘Friends’ Appearance
The celebrity relationship between superstar Brooke Shields and former tennis pro Andre Agassi began in 1993. The two were married from 1997 to 1999, and their relationship started via fax which progressed into heartfelt letters of devotion. Supporting each other in their high-profile careers, Shields would often watch Agassi on the court and he would reciprocate by attending her performances.
The Endless Love star shared an incident where Agassi clearly didn’t appreciate Shields’ acting choices during one particular scene with Matt LeBlanc on Friends.
‘Friends: The One After the Super Bowl’
In season 2 of Friends, NBC aired a double-length episode immediately following Super Bowl XXX. Part of the storyline featured Joey (LeBlanc) gaining some fame after his debut on Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. He soon meets a fan, Erika Ford (Shields) who is obsessed with his soap opera character and considers him to actually be Drake rather than Joey.
Shields earned raves for her over-the-top performance as a crazed fan. The former Calvin Klein model credited the guest appearance as helping her land her own sitcom deal from NBC for Suddenly Susan.
“No one had ever seen me in that light before,” Shields said, as reported by Yahoo. “It was because of my Friends episode that NBC wanted to do a show with me as the lead. Had it not been for that crazy part, I don’t think anybody necessarily would’ve known that was what I love to do more than anything.”
Andre Agassi wasn’t a fan of Brooke Shields’ scene with Matt LeBlanc
Agassi was present when Shields was filming one particular scene with LeBlanc, where her character shows just how little self-control she possessed when it came to her feelings for Joey/Drake.
“Andre visited the soundstage to watch me shoot my Friends scene,” she wrote in her memoir, There Was a Little Girl. “In the scene, I played a crazed fan who begins licking Joey’s fingers and throwing my head back with maniacal laughter.”
Apparently, Shields’ performance angered Agassi to the point where he left the studio in a rage.
“As we were shooting the second pass of the same scene, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye,” The Blue Lagoon star recalled. “Andre had stormed off the set. At cut, I ran outside to find him and had to yell to him from the doorway so as not to get wet from the suddenly pouring sky. He said I made him look like a fool by licking Joey’s fingers, and he got in his car and drove all the way back to Vegas.”
Brooke Shields chose to replace Andre Agassi’s trophies after he destroyed them
Agassi wasn’t over his anger after his ride home to Las Vegas and vented his frustration on his entire tennis trophy collection.
“Upon arrival, he systematically smashed and destroyed every single trophy he had won,” Shields revealed. “Including Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, never mind all the others.”
Shields felt compelled to replace all of Agassi’s ravaged awards in case he wanted to pass them on in the future, though she realized she would probably not be a part of it.
“It took me three years to have them all replaced,” she wrote. “I always believed his kids would one day want them. I hadn’t thought of their being my kids at that point, but it was just a shame to waste the legacy. He probably threw them away, too, because I had them made.”
The second season of Friends ran on NBC in 1995 and 1996. Shields and Agassi wed in 1997 and divorced in 1999.
