You (Still) Got To Have Friends

[from TV Guide, 11/01]

By Janet Weeks

The gesture was sweet, if misguided. Friends star Jennifer Aniston, 32, and her husband, Brad Pitt, 37, were finishing dinner at a Los Angeles sushi restaurant when three grinning waiters approached their table. "They go, 'Congratulations!' and they have this big ol' piece of chocolate cake decorated beautifully," says Aniston. "I said, 'What's this for?' They said, 'You're pregnant!' I said, 'I'm not pregnant!'" Not even close, apparently. "I literally had sake and a cigarette in my hands," she says, laughing.

The mix-up is understandable. For eight seasons, Aniston and co-stars David Schwimmer, 35, Lisa Kudrow, 38, Matt LeBlanc, 34, Courteney Cox Arquette, 37, and Matthew Perry, 32, have charmed their way into the public consciousness. "When the six of us filmed the pilot, there was something inexplicable about the chemistry among us," says Schwimmer, "like we were six pieces of a puzzle that naturally came together."

Last May, the show surprised fans with a ninth-inning twist: Aniston's so-sexy Rachel Green is pregnant (that explains the free dessert). Friends delivered another shock this fall when the father was revealed: Rachel's egghead former flame Ross Geller (Schwimmer), to whom she was briefly married. The endearing storyline has perked up ratings for the coffeehouse comedy and given news-weary fans a welcome romantic retreat. Even Pitt has joined the Friends frenzy, appearing this week at the gang's Thanksgiving dinner as an old pal of Monica's, who's not too fond of Rachel. Will Friends (NBC, Thursdays, 8 pm/ET) be back for another year (the actors' $750,000-per-episode contracts expire this season)? As yet, no one's sure. Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman says simply: "It's on fire again."

At the center of that fire are Aniston and Schwimmer. During an interview on the show's Burbank, California, set, they are relaxed and playful. She calls him "Schwim" and he calls her "hon." They hug for the cameras. Then she sticks her finger up his nose, and he cracks up. Their ease comes through to audiences, says Kauffman. "People need something to invest in. It's like going home."

TV GUIDE: When did you find out Rachel was pregnant?
JENNIFER ANISTON: When we shot the [season] finale.

TVG: They didn't tell you until then?
ANISTON: No. They wanted it hush-hush. Every year they tried to keep the cliffhanger secret and it's gotten out.
TVG: What did you think?
ANISTON: I was like, "Wow."
DAVID SCHWIMMER: I don't think I even knew at the finale. I think I knew at the beginning of this season that that was going to be the plan. Well, I mean I knew when we were filming last year's final episode obviously, along with the rest of the country, that she was pregnant.
TVG: You didn't know that Ross was the father?
SCHWIMMER: No. I had no idea.
TVG: How did you react when you found out?
SCHWIMMER: It kind of made me laugh because of their roller-coaster romance of the last several years. This will be another curve in the track.
TVG: Should they get married?
SCHWIMMER: That's a good question. I guess not, really, because they're not in love with each other.
ANISTON: Friendship outlasts romance.
TVG: You think?
ANISTON: I don't know what I'm talking about! [Laughs] I don't think they should be married for the sake of this. We've gone beyond that in this day and age. But if they love each other and want to be together, I think they should be married.
TVG: Jennifer, once Rachel became pregnant, rumors flew that the storyline was created because you were really pregnant.
ANISTON: Of course they did. I mean, it makes sense. I understand why people would think that. It's funny, though. I wasn't angry at all. The only time I got kind of annoyed was when they were actually reporting it on, like, [the] news.

TVG: When single moms have babies on TV, they have the baby, then...
ANISTON: You never see the baby again. Where does the baby go? The TV baby room?
TVG: So will there be a baby regularly on Friends?
ANISTON: Interesting! What's going to happen? Will she have a baby that's seen all the time?
SCHWIMMER: It may just end with you giving birth.
TVG: Do you think Rachel will be a good mom?
ANISTON: I think Rachel will be a great mom. I think she'll be scared to death, like everybody. Look at all the friends she's had for so long. She's going to have a lot of help.
TVG: Does playing a pregnant woman make you think about being pregnant in your own life?
ANISTON: No. I think about it, but that doesn't make me go, "Ahhh." It feels nice to have the advantage of taking off the pads.
TVG: David, your character has a son from his first wife. Does playing a dad make you think about having kids?
SCHWIMMER: No. It's not reality. Seeing Lisa [Kudrow] with her real baby [Julian, 3] — that makes me think more about having a baby.
TVG: You have said that it peeves you that Ross has been divorced so many times, and that marriage is a running gag for him. Would you feel that way even more if he married again?
SCHWIMMER: A fourth time? As long as it's not "OK. Let's get him married again next week!" Sometimes I feel that some of the choices that have been made for my character have not necessarily been earned. Or smart.
TVG: Will Phoebe [Kudrow] and Joey [Matt LeBlanc] hook up?
ANISTON: I hope so. I just think that would be great. But I think that should happen at the end. And we shouldn't know until then.
TVG: Could the show go on if not all the Friends were on it?
ANISTON: No way. Not a chance. You wouldn't want Monica and Chandler, Ross and Rachel, and Joey and... Tammy. It wouldn't be fun for us. We wouldn't want to do it.
SCHWIMMER: It wouldn't be the same show.