After the end of "Friends", these six people have made different attempts to expand their acting careers, and they have also continued their lives.
Text | Yue Han
(Jennifer M. Aniston as )
After the end of "Friends", Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel, was undoubtedly the most successful one to move to the big screen. With six films that grossed more than $100 million, she cemented her position as a Hollywood A-list star.
Rachel's role earned her a Golden Globe, an Emmy, and other awards, and in the early days of the post-"Friends" era, she was more inclined to explore female characters in independent films; in 2002, before "Friends" was finished, her performance in the independent film "The Girl Who Watched the Rye" surprised critics. The film tells the story of a small local woman struggling and thinking, in which Jennifer performs a very different feeling from Rachel, the mediocre sadness of a small-town woman who is not willing to be ordinary. She won the Hollywood Film Award for this film.
In February 2009, she starred with Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Connery and other stars in the movie "He Doesn't Really Like You That Much". Although she was not the absolute protagonist of the film, the film itself was the North American box office champion that year.
Stills from "He Doesn't Really Like You That Much"
In 2011, she continued her transformation, playing a dentist who sexually harasses her subordinates in the comedy film Evil Boss. Here, her classic "American Sweetheart" image in "Friends" is subverted, playing a villain. This role continues Rachel's sexiness, but it is no longer so "harmless" and becomes more powerful. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 2012 American Comedy Awards for this role, and was named "Best Screen Villain" by audiences at the 2012 MTV Film Awards.
2013's "Counterfeit Family" made her another commercial success, and it was also her sixth film to gross more than 100 million in North America. For so many years, Aniston, as an actor, has succeeded in her commercial appeal, and it is precisely in this way that she can continue to win the right to speak and continue to accurately choose the script and roles.
Stills from "Counterfeit Family"
The new drama "Morning News", which just aired in November this year, may be the result of this precise choice. In this play, she and Reese Witherspoon are the two heroines. Reese Witherspoon made several cameo appearances in Friends as Rachel's sister. She appears in a few episodes but is impressive. Some time ago, during the promotion period of "Morning News", they were repeatedly called on by the audience to reproduce the classic lines of the sisters in "Friends".
In the realm of personal life, Jennifer Aniston has a love affair that makes people sigh. In the ninth episode of the eighth season of "Friends", the popular actor Brad Pitt made a cameo appearance. It was 2001, and this well-known golden boy-girl relationship was in a period of enthusiasm. Ironically, Brad plays a character who hates Rachel very much in this episode, and the contrast with the diametrically opposed outside the scene increases the comedic tension of this section, and this episode has become a memorable classic in the history of "Friends".
The twists and turns that followed, everyone knows. But the headlines of the news over the years can still see the public's expectations for them to become a couple again. In 2017, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie divorced. The following year, Aniston's marriage to Justin Therox was also declared over.
The two parties did not announce anything, but many media outlets could not hold back and published some news of their "compounding". Earlier this year, Jennifer held her own 50th birthday party, and Brad Pitt was photographed by the media to go to the low-key, "staying for more than three hours", at this time, everyone was secretly expecting them to reunite. Perhaps, fairy tales are always needed in the minds of the masses.
This actress, who is both commercial and acting, has been curious and fond of her for 25 years. In the past, she had no account on Instagram, and some time ago, she only posted a photo of six people, which caused the Instagram server to collapse. She is also the fastest rising star in Instagram history.
Over the years, honed and developed in the ever-changing Hollywood, Aniston has a deep understanding of women in this industry. Her new drama "Morning News" is very gratifying to let people see her thinking. Exploring gender and ageism, Aniston's acting skills, or her own, have successfully portrayed a mature woman who has been up and down in the industry for a long time, her crisis and her strength.
(Courtney M.) Cox as Cox)
Cotney Cox recently made a cameo appearance with David Beckham in the American drama "Modern Family", playing themselves, still on the news, causing everyone to feel nostalgic.
After the end of "Friends", Courtney's career does not seem to continue to take off like Aniston, becoming an actress with stronger commercial appeal. After "Friends", her most impressive work seems to be "Mature Girl Town". It's a comedy drama that began airing on American ABC in 2009 and tells the story of a divorced woman in her 40s. The show earned Coatney a Golden Globe nomination.
Looking closely at the episodes, "Mature Girl Town" still seems to let people see a middle-aged Monica, the voice is still very loud, still like to stomp when angry, there is cleanliness, control, nosy. Even some of the tone of her voice, especially the strange noise she made when she argued with her next-door neighbor in the first episode of the first season, was Monica outright. This may be where some fans feel that Courtney has not broken through. However, "Mature Girl Town" still successfully aired for six seasons, which is also a good result.
Stills from "Mature Girl Town"
Another of her impressive works is the Scream series. In 1996, while still starring in Friends, Courtney starred in the first horror comedy. The Screams series of films was a success, becoming a classic of American youth horror films, followed by a tribute to the Scream series. But people remember more about the movie than the actor In it, Cotney.
However, the film introduced Courtney to her future husband, David Arquette, who played her lover Dewey in the film. On June 12, 1999, the two were married in San Francisco and gave birth to a daughter in 2004. In 2013, the two announced their divorce.
After Scream, she starred in the suspense film November, which won the Best Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival, but did not bring any awards or a very obvious career advancement for Courtney. Later, she starred in the movie "The Longest Yard", which was also a similar fate.
This year, Jennifer Aniston's photo of a group of six people who has crippled social media servers because of her popularity meets at Courtney's home, similar to the plot of "Friends" again. For so many years, the public has always hoped that the friendship of the six people will be as good as in the play, but it does not seem to be as warm as the public expects. Perhaps, that kind of near-perfect human relationship can only appear in the play.
But the six of them still had moments of great agreement. In 1997, when "Friends" was at its peak, led by David Humer, the six of them negotiated with the producers to demand that the salary not only be greatly increased, but also that the six people should be exactly the same, $100,000 an episode, otherwise, they would not be filmed. By the end of the season, each of the six cast members had been paid $1.25 million per episode, for a total of $24 million. More wisely, they asked the producers to guarantee that after the end of "Friends", each of the six leading actors will receive a certain percentage of the income of "Friends" every year. This may also be an important reason why these six leading actors can be more "themselves" to a certain extent over the years. Netflix previously spent $100 million to buy the platform rights to "Friends" from Warner Pictures, which is only the cost of broadcasting until the end of 2019.
(Matthew M. Perry as)
The character of Chandler has a group of fans with very different tastes in the play, because Chandler's humor is very unique. He has a little depth, a little "tears", the satirical and harsh language is actually very exquisite, and there are many connotations that need to be further understood.
Outside of the play, Matthew Perry's own experience is a little more tortuous than the other five lead actors. When "Friends" aired, perhaps because of the fame of the time and the money that came with it, he became addicted to drugs, so the audience would see him on the screen for a while. In the sixth season, he was visibly fat again, and not just a little, because he had started drinking heavily. Later, Matthew had to lose weight through liposuction, which also led to the last episode of the sixth season and the first episode of the seventh season, which was set to happen one night, but Chandler suddenly became fat and thin, as if he had completely changed into a person. In the seventh season, he became addicted to painkillers after a ski accident and contracted drug abuse.
After the end of "Friends", Matthew Perry did not have a particularly bright development in his career, and most of the dramas he starred in were cut in one or two seasons, such as "Studio 60 Sunset Boulevard" in 2006 and "Mr. Sunshine" in 2011.
In 2009, he starred in the movie "Back to 17", playing a middle-aged man who returned to 17 years old overnight. The film is well rated, but its highlight is not the middle-aged part, but a character who is 17 years old on the outside but a middle-aged man on the inside. Therefore, the young protagonist Zach Efron is actually more brilliant.
Stills from "Back to 17"
In 2012, Matthew Perry returned to the small screen in the sitcom Go On by Scott Sylvie, writer and executive producer of Friends. But the show also lasted only one season before being canceled. In "Life Rush forward", Matthew played a sports commentator, and in the first episode, because of Matthew's joining, the popularity was very high. However, as the episode aired, ratings plummeted, and by the time the final episode aired, there were only 3 million viewers left. Matthew Perry recently expressed his nostalgia for the television environment of Friends' time in an interview.
In fact, not only Matthew Perry himself, but also NBC Tv lost its comedy supremacy after "Friends". Many of its comedies have been very dismal in recent years. "Daddy Is Home", "New Normal", "The President's Family", "The Three-Year Itch", and "Sleepless All Night", etc., most of them were broadcast for a period of time and then announced that they would not renew.
(David M. Humer as
Before starring in "Friends", the actor david Humer who played Rose was already more famous, and the screenwriter of the show knew him at the time, and the role of Rose had added some of David's characteristics and tone. In fact, David was the first actor among the six to be selected for the group. After the end of "Friends", he was also the star who broke the old character impression of the show earlier.
Around 2000, he starred in the TV series "Company of Brothers" produced by Tom Hanks as director. There were a lot of Hollywood A-list actors who came to be very famous in this show, but at that time, David Humer was undoubtedly the most famous, because "Friends" was in full swing at that time. David Humer played a captain in "Company of Brothers" from bullying a recruit to being bullied by a recruit, and his acting skills were remarkable, winning the Golden Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor.
He then turned his career to directing, with Fat Boy Running, his first film, released in March 2008. The film was a mixed acclaim, but was a box office success, earning it a nomination for Best Debut at the British Independent Film Awards. In the same year, he also directed the Filming of the American version of Little Britain in Los Angeles. The drama is based on the BBC hit comedy of the same name, ordered and produced by HBO TV, but it does not seem to cause much repercussions.
In 2011, his film Trust was released. The film focuses on child sexual abuse and adolescent personality development, and although it has received praise from some critics, it has failed miserably at the box office.
2018's "American Crime Story" finally won a city back for Humer. In this drama, he plays Simpson's good friend Robert Kardashian in "The Simpson Wife Murder Case", which is considered to be the second male number. After years of precipitation and years of behind-the-scenes and theater performances, David's performance in this play has been well received. More comments believe that he really jumped out of the role of "Rose", and the details were successfully shaped, becoming the "conscience part" of the play. The role also earned him an Emmy nomination.
In the past, when filming "Friends", the six actors had a habit of forming a circle before the opening, saying to each other and each other, "Start a good show." When Friends was filming the final episode, David Humer confessed that he couldn't complete the ritual because he knew it was the last time they would do it, which made him very uncomfortable.
(played by Lisa Cudjo)
Lisa Cudjoll is the actor with the most Emmy nominations among the six actors, for a total of 14 times. Six times because of "Friends" and eight times because of plays after "Friends". After "Friends", her more impressive works are "Homecoming" and "Internet Therapy". It is worth mentioning that both works are the screenwriting parts of her role.
The first season of Homecoming aired in 2005, the first year after friends ended. In the show, Lisa Cudjo plays a former sitcom actress who made a splash in a sitcom in the '90s, but she didn't have any decent job opportunities for the next 13 years. Finally, a documentary approached her to follow her 24 hours a day about her daily life, and she was invited to participate in another new TV show, but not the protagonist. It is worth mentioning that the drama in "The Return" is also a sitcom with a live audience, which can't help but remind people of whether Lisa has integrated the shooting experience of the live audience at the time of "Friends" into "The Return".
"The Return" uses the filming methods of "pseudo-documentary" and "drama within the play" to truly show the hardships of a middle-aged actress in Hollywood. This drama is worth watching, but perhaps because it is a comedy, the theme shown is too heavy and the performance method is too sad, so it was not renewed after the first season was broadcast, and it took nine years to restart the second season.
Valerie, the heroine played by Lisa in it, still retains a strong sense of "Phoebe". The show only aired for two seasons, perhaps because people loved the character of Phoebe too much to see her being rejected everywhere in Hollywood after middle age. However, "Homecoming" received three Emmy nominations, and from a screenplay perspective, it may be a good affirmation of Lisa Kudrow.
(played by Matt LeBron)
In 2016, Matt LeBron told the Daily Mirror that he had "had a dark time" when Friends had just finished. He didn't go out for years because he felt "exhausted." He wanted to live a time when there was no tight schedule and no place to go every day.
Watching the original drama carefully, Joey's role is also liked by the audience because of his "willfulness". Rachel's willfulness is because this character is beautiful but has the kindness of a beautiful girl's waywardness, so her little selfishness or ladylike temperament is always unconsciously tolerated. Joey's "willfulness" is loved for the reasons above, but there is more simplicity in his kindness, which is integrated with his undisguised pursuit of women, making the character real and full while having his own shortcomings.
The character of Joey was so beloved that after the end of "Friends", NBC launched a spin-off drama "Joey". Matt LeBron continues to play Joey on the show. But this drama was cut off after two seasons, and the film reviews were not very good.
In the post-Friends era, Matt LeBron's most notable work was Episodes with David Clarney, one of the writers of Friends. The show aired for five seasons and earned Matt LeBron best actor in a television series in the 69th Golden Globe Awards for "Musical/Comedy Series."
"Inside and Outside the Play" does not depart from "Friends", Matt plays himself in it, playing Matt LeBron, an actor who encountered a series of events, characters, and conflicts in Hollywood after "Friends". "Inside and Out" is really like an extended, carefully tailored personal interview with Matt LeBron. Its popularity speaks volumes about the popularity of Joey's character: everyone wants to know what happened and what happened to Matt after Friends.
At the end of the season of Friends, the actors were between the ages of 35 and 41. The TV series ended, and their exploration of the next age group began. Leaving their decade-long roles, these six people have more or less undergone a process of self-searching and constant breakthroughs. From the beginning of the broadcast to the present, 25 years have passed, and these actors have achieved different goals in their respective lives. But whatever their current situation, one thing seems to never change: now or at any time in the future, open any episode of Friends, and these six people will be waiting for us in that world that we are so familiar with.
(This article was published in the "Sanlian Life Weekly" issue 45 in 2019, click the product card at the end of the article to place an order)
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