Top Stories

Freddie Prinze Jr. Says His 'Friends' Role Almost Went to This Oscar Winner!

Freddie Prinze Jr. Says His 'Friends' Role Almost Went to This Oscar Winner!

Freddie Prinze Jr. is dishing on his guest starring role on Friends!

Back in season nine of the hit sitcom in the episode “The One with the Male Nanny,” the 43-year-old actor played Sandy, the male nanny for Ross and Rachel’s newborn daughter Emma.

In the episode, Ross didn’t approve of the “manny” because of how sensitive Sandy was, so Freddie‘s role only lasted one episode.

Now years later, Freddie is revealing that he almost didn’t get the role – and that it was originally offered to 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,” Freddie shared with Entertainment Weekly. “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.’ He said, ‘Yeah, it shoots tomorrow.’ and I was like, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yes, tomorrow so I’ll send you the script.’”

After getting the role, Freddie said that star David Schwimmer was able to help calm his nerves on the day of filming.

“So I went in and I was totally nervous because it was on the day of shooting. I didn’t even get to do a read-through,” Freddie shared. “And David Schwimmer walked into my dressing room and he was so cool and so passionate and he had so much energy. 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.’”

READ MORE: The ‘Friends’ Cast Might Reunite for a Special on HBO Max!

Just Jared on Facebook
Photos: Getty Images
Posted to: Freddie Prinze Jr, Friends