10 Actors You Won't Believe Were Nearly Cast In Friends

4. Eric McCormack - Ross

Many critics originally considered Ross to be the weakest character in the Friends line-up, and he was - for a time - perhaps the least popular character on the show. But then something happened: the writers found Ross' voice and realised how great David Schwimmer was at blending both physical and verbal comedy to hilarious results. It became clear that Ross made for awesome writing opportunities, primarily because he could be either be pegged as the bigger man or as the pettiest guy in the room, depending on the situation at hand. It probably helped that David Schwimmer is kind of funny to look at, too, in that goofy way. Nowadays, ask somebody who their favourite Friends character is and you're likely to get "Ross" as the answer - even those younger people who grew up watching Ross and not really getting him seem to have changed their minds about the character. That's to say, Schwimmer is a undeniably large part of the show's success, and it's weird to think Eric McCormack - yep, Will from Will and Grace - almost ended up as our favourite paleontologist after several successful auditions (he won an Emmy for his Will role, so don't feel too bad for the guy).