9 Ups & 3 Downs From Friends: The Reunion

7. The One With The Castings

Cutting back to David Crane, Marta Kauffman, and Kevin Bright later in the special, they talked about the casting process to find the right six, revealing some interesting and, often, hilarious tidbits.

David Schwimmer, for example, had actually quit television and was solely doing theatre because of a terrible experience he had encountered on another show. It reportedly took some gift baskets and promises that Friends would be an entirely different experience to persuade him to come back to play Ross.

Signing Matthew Perry and Jennifer Anniston came with their own troubles, as both had just signed on to star in other shows; Perry played Blaine in L.A.X 2194, which was about baggage handlers at LAX airport in the year 2194, while Anniston played Madeline Drego Cooper in Muddling Through. They were both made for the roles of Rachel and Chandler, however, and eventually left those projects behind for Friends.

Finding the right person to play Phoebe was a tad trickier, until David Crane's husband Jeffrey suggested Lisa Kudrow after working with her on Mad About You. Meanwhile, Matt LeBlanc himself revealed that, prior to his callback, he had blacked out while drunk, smashing a chunk out of his nose. Arriving at the callback, Marta addressed this, LeBlanc told the truth, and was cast as Joey. The ironic thing with Joey is that the actor who played his 'twin' Karl in an episode, Louis Mandylor, had actually auditioned for the role of 'proper' Joey.

Lastly, Courteney Cox was originally penned for Rachel, as fans already know.