Andre Agassi wasn’t shy about it: in his 2009 memoir, Open, he admitted that after watching his then-girlfriend Brooke Shields shoot a flirty scene with Joey, he went home and smashed every trophy he’d ever won, including his Wimbledon and US Open titles. Shields backed up the story herself years later — and she wasn’t the only Friends guest star left with bad memories of Central Perk.
It would be hard for anyone born after 2000 to understand just how momentous Friends was for an entire generation. The show singlehandedly changed the course of sitcoms; naturally, everyone wanted to join the gang at Central Perk. Well, everyone but these 10 actors, who have come out in interviews to tell their fans how little they enjoyed their time in Friends.
It’s a theme even the show’s own stars have acknowledged. In a June 2026 Actors on Actors interview with Variety, Jennifer Aniston reminisced about how visibly nervous many of Friends’ movie-star guest stars were on set — naming names like Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis, and Sean Penn — and admitted she “always found it fascinating how nervous they were.” Aniston wasn’t talking about the actors on this list specifically, but the pattern clearly wasn’t limited to one or two isolated cases.
Tate Donovan: Filming With Ex-Girlfriend Jennifer Aniston Was “Heartbreaking”
You might remember Donovan as Joshua, Rachel’s fleeting love interest in Season 4. In real life, however, Donovan and Anniston were just calling it quits and used the show as a way to cope with their transition from couple to friends. It didn’t go as planned, and Donovan recalls the event as “heartbreaking.”
Kathleen Turner Felt Unwelcome by the Tight-Knit Friends Cast
Turner played one of the show’s most controversial characters: Chandler’s post-transition father, Helena Handbasket. Turner later commented on how she didn’t like working on the Friends set, as she would not feel welcomed by the tight-knit cast.
Jennifer Grey Was Replaced After Calling Her Role Too Anxiety-Provoking
Grey played Mindy, Rachel Green’s maid-of-honor and former best friend, in the show’s first season. She was set to return to Friends, but was ultimately replaced after she said working on the show was very anxiety-provoking.
Fisher Stevens Admits He Was Rude to the Friends Cast Out of Nerves
While Stevens doesn’t regret his cameo, he laments the way he behaved on set. He says he behaved rudely, mostly due to being nervous or inexperienced with the sitcom format.
Paul Rudd Says He Felt Like a “Prop” in the Friends Finale
Rudd became an integral part of the show in its final episodes, but the Ant-Man star says he sometimes felt like a “prop,” saying that his character seemed a bit tacked on in the finale.
John Stamos Was “Embarrassed” by the Audience’s Reaction to His Cameo
The Full House lead had a minor role as a sperm donor in a Season 9 episode. He expected cheers from the live audience, but was discouraged when he was received by a deafening silence instead. The experience “embarrassed” the veteran sitcom lead, souring his brief stint in the legendary show.
Olivia Williams Called Joining Friends a “Harrowing” Experience
The actress recalls the process of joining Friends as “harrowing”. According to Williams, the producers wanted to alter everything about her looks to make her fit better under the Friends umbrella, and she recalls the experience as being an extremely stressful one.
Brooke Shields’ Cameo Reportedly Made Husband Andre Agassi Smash Trophies
Married to tennis player Andre Agassi at the time of her Friends cameo, the actress recalls how much the athlete loathed that her character had to flirt with Joey constantly. According to Shields, Agassi reportedly smashed trophies in a fit of rage after seeing her cameo.
This isn’t secondhand gossip — Agassi confirmed the story in his own memoir, and Shields gave The New Yorker more detail in 2023, saying he stormed out of the taping and later told her she’d “made a fool” of him.
Elle Macpherson Says She Wouldn’t Have Done It If She Knew How Big Friends Would Get
Macpherson played Janine Lacroix, Joey’s roommate, for five episodes. While the actress recognizes the opportunity of guest-starring in a show like Friends, she says she would have never done it if she knew just how big the series would get in its later seasons.
Jean-Claude Van Damme Says He Felt Like a “Ham” Friends Didn’t Respect
If you ask the Friends cast, Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of the worst guest stars the show had, with rumors of inappropriate behavior casting a dark shadow over his cameo. If you ask Van Damme, however, he also didn’t enjoy his time at Friends, saying he felt like a “ham” in a show that didn’t respect him at all.
Van Damme’s Friends cameo is back in the conversation for an unrelated reason this year, too: Prime Video has confirmed a sequel to his 2025 hit Le Jardinier, and the news has revived interest in the decades-old on-set complaints about his behavior during the show’s Super Bowl episode.
For more on Hollywood friendships that didn’t survive the cameras, see our roundup of actors who hated each other in real life.
