Summary
- Olivia Williams called guest-starring on Friends "harrowing" due to witnessing verbal abuse from a producer towards another actress on set.
- Williams felt pressured to fit the brand of Friends, including being told to pluck off all her eyebrows, which she found disturbing.
- Despite her negative experience on Friends, Olivia Williams' acting career took off after her guest appearance.
Back in the '90s, winning a guest-starring role on Friends must have been incredibly exciting. It meant getting up close to the main stars and also becoming more famous. But some actors have shared their less-than-perfect experiences, like when Anna Faris was afraid on the Friends set.
Olivia Williams is another star who shared that they didn't have the happiest time on Friends. While her most famous TV role was when she played Camilla Parker Bowles on The Crown, she actually guest-starred in two Friends episodes. Williams played Felicity, who was Emily Waltham's bridesmaid in her wedding to Ross Geller. In April 2024, Olivia Williams talked about guest-starring on Friends in an interview with The Independent... and shocked fans by sharing that she didn't like it at all. In this article, we'll take a look at why Olivia Williams called guest-starring on Friends "harrowing." We'll also look at what her career has been like since she appeared on the beloved sitcom.
Olivia Williams Revealed That She Had A Terrible Experience Guest-Starring On Friends
When Olivia Williams gave an interview to The Independent, she described appearing on Friends as "harrowing" and had a few negative things to say.
Williams shared a story about verbal abuse from a producer that will be surprising to fans of Friends, who likely think of the sitcom set as a warm and supportive place. After all, the six main cast members always talked about how much they enjoyed working together.
Williams watched a Friends producer scream at another actress. The other star didn't return the following day. While Williams didn't say if the actress was fired or if she quit, it sounds like this was a disturbing experience.
Williams said:
"I was taken to the studio in a shared car with a wonderful actress whose character, I think, was called ‘Old Woman’... At one point, a producer – who shall remain nameless – just yelled at her: ‘You’re not funny!’ And she didn’t come back the next day. So that was alarming.”
While it would have been terrible to witness this on any movie or TV set, the fact that this happened on Friends is definitely awful to hear about. It also must have been tough for Williams, who was young and just starting out. Instead of having fun on a thrilling TV set, she had to watch someone be insulted.
The actress also said that Friends was "harrowing" because Williams felt pressured to look the part of the cast. This is definitely a dark and concerning detail that fans never knew about. It seems strange that there would be such a big focus on her physical appearance.
| Some Celebrities Who Guest-Starred On Friends And The Character They Played | Episode Title And Season (According to Entertainment Weekly) |
|---|---|
| Freddie Prince Jr., Sandy | "The One With the Male Nanny" (season 9, episode 6) |
| Ben Stiller, Tommy | "The One With The Screamer" (season 3, episode 22) |
| Mae Whitman, Sarah Tuttle | "The One Where Rachel Quits" (season 3, episode 10) |
| Jane Lynch, Ellen | "The One Where Estelle Dies" (season 10, episode 15) |
| Sherri Shepherd, Rhonda The Tour Guide | "The One With Phoebe's Uterus" (season 4, episode 11) |
| Soliel Moon Frye, Katie | "The One With the Girl Who Hits Joey" (season 5, episode 15) |
| Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Hayes | "The One With The Mugging" (season 9, episode 15) |
| Gabrielle Union, Kristen Lang | "The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress" (season 7, episode 17) |
She said:
"Friends was a brand, and you had to fit the brand. You go into hair and make-up and you’re told, ‘There’s a look here, this is what we do.’ And that involved, essentially, plucking off all of your eyebrows.”
The quirky and hilarious actress kept her sense of humor when talking to The Independent and said that she wanted to ensure that she had eyebrows for another project. However, it sounds like she was upset at the time as she didn't want to change her look.
Which Friends Episodes Did Olivia Williams Star In?
- "The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 2" (season 4, episode 24)
- "The One After Ross Says Rachel" (season 5, episode 1)
Olivia Williams' experience is very different from what other guest stars like Kristin Davis said about their time on the sitcom, according to Today.com. While she shared many scenes with Matt LeBlanc, she didn't say anything negative about him or any of the main cast members in her interview with The Independent.
What Happened To Olivia Williams' Acting Career After She Appeared On Friends?
While Olivia Williams had an awful time when she was a guest star on Friends in 1998, Williams' acting career took off after. Even though she didn't like being on the popular sitcom, there's no denying that the guest appearance gave her more visibility in Hollywood, which must have helped her get other roles.
What TV Shows Did Olivia Williams Star In During The 1990s?
- Van der Valk (1992)
- The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1992)
- Emma (1996)
Williams is best known for her movie roles. In 1999, Williams played Anna Crowe in The Sixth Sense, the wife of Bruce Willis' character Malcolm Crowe. Over the next few decades, she showed that she could act in any kind of project, starring in the 2011 action movie Hanna, a 2012 adaptation of Anna Karenina, and David Cronenberg's quirky 2014 satire Maps to the Stars.
While she had a negative time on Friends, Olivia Williams has enjoyed her career. In 2021, she said that she was more pleased than ever with how her professional life was going. In 2024, she appeared in two sci-fi projects: the movie Another End and the TV series Dune: Prophecy.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar, the actress talked about her exciting career and said:
“The astounding amount of interesting work for women in their fifties! Fortunately, if you imagine it like an eclipse with a shadow travelling across the land, I’ve been walking in the light throughout my career. I’m so, so lucky. You don’t have to be a young, alluring teenager to get interesting roles as a woman now – that’s been amazing."
