‘Friends’: David Schwimmer Accidentally Created Ross’ Big Moment at His Wedding
Who could forget how Ross Gellar’s wedding to Emily (Helen Baxdale) went sideways? Apparently that big moment of him saying the wrong name was inspired by a real accident David Schwimmer made during a rehearsal. Find out how the actor inspired the twist on Friends and more.
Ross and Rachel broke up quickly after getting together on ‘Friends’
Ross had feelings for Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) for some time. But they didn’t get together until later and Ross ruined it by having sex with someone else. There was a reason why the couple was quickly separated.
Executive producer and director Kevin S. Bright told Metro, “I would say initially when [Ross and Rachel] was planned it wasn’t planned that way, that came a little bit later.” He then talked about going against what the audience wanted.
“It allowed us to have fun with the show and give people something to root for,” he said. “We were well aware the audience wanted to keep them together but everything that was keeping them apart – we realised when we got them together when the first kiss happened we go, ‘Wow, the air has kind of gone out of the balloon.'”
Bright thinks it was the right decision to break them up. “I thought what Marta [Kauffman] and David [Crane] did, which was such a brilliant and brave move with their relationship, as soon as everyone got their wish the wish was taken away,” he said. “It made it so much better when they did get together.”
Ross’ wedding was actually filmed in London
“The One with Ross’s Wedding” shows Ross about to get married to Emily. Emily is British so the show did something different to film the show.
“It may have been Kevin Bright who went, ‘Oh we should go and do an episode in London,’” Friends co-creator David Crane told Entertainment Weekly. “There was an organic possibility there because Ross was dating someone who was British. I think Kevin was really turned on by the production challenge of it, but it also gave us some really good story stuff.”
The creator said Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) scenes were still filmed in Los Angeles. “And then we shot the rest of it on a stage in London and actually did it three times,” he said. “Normally you would only do a show once but we did three performances of it because why not? We’re in London!”
David Schwimmer’s accident during rehearsal created Ross’ big moment
Things go wrong when Emily and Ross say their vows because he accidentally says “I take thee, Rachel.” This was inspired by a real accident the actor made during rehearsal.
Saul Austerlitz published a compilation of interviews with the cast called Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era. It claims Schwimmer was going over lines and accidentally said “Rachel, the taxi’s here” when he was supposed to say “Emily, the taxi’s here.”
Austerlitz then wrote “[producer] Greg Malins turned to David Crane and said, ‘That’s what happens,’” according to InStyle. The name mistake was moved to a much bigger event and the rest is TV history.
