Friends may be long behind us, but you better believe the Friends cast still make BIG bucks when they all sit on a couch together!
According to the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc were offered $1 million each to reunite for HBO Max’s reunion special (the same amount they were making per episode for the final two seasons of the beloved sitcom, btw), but the group turned it down!
Why? Because, well, they apparently know their worth; they got even more after holding out!
The cast ended up making at least $2.5 million each for the unscripted special, per a February 2020 Variety report, which marked the first time all six actors have appeared on screen together since the May 2004 finale.
Related: Jennifer Nearly Lost The Role Of Rachel Green On FRIENDS!
During the hotly-anticipated special — which was executive produced by all six Friends actors as well as original producers Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane — the cast walked back through the original set together, performed table reads of some of the most famous scenes, and reminisced about their time filming the series.
Aniston admitted the special was an emotional roller coaster, saying on SiriusXM’s Gayle King in the House following the taping:
“It was a sucker punch in the heart in a way. It was for all of us, I think. Even Courteney we got tears out of.”
The We’re The Millers star noted that it felt like they had “time traveled” upon entering the set in the same soundstage they used to film at on the Warner Bros. studio lot, recalling:
“We romanticized it, but you also have to remember we haven’t been there [since the series finale]. And that time was a very specific time, when we were saying goodbye to something that we didn’t want to, we cared deeply about, but we knew it was the time to say goodbye. Our lives were ahead of us. We had our future ahead of us.”
The reunion was just as emotional for fans, who gushed over the star studded reunion on social media after it debuted on May 27. However, many were concerned over the health of Perry, whose speech was a bit slurred and slow during the special.
Thankfully, the actor’s colleagues had his back. As we reported, Friends: The Reunion director Ben Winston blasted the “unkind” comments about the actor in an interview on The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast last week, sharing:
“He was great. People can sometimes just be unkind. I wish they weren’t. I loved working with him. He’s a brilliantly funny man and I thought he had some great one-liners in the show. I felt just happy and lucky to be in his presence and directing him on something like this.”
Sources later said Perry’s speech was slurred because he had an “emergency tooth procedure” the day of the taping.
Hopefully, that big paycheck will help Perry forget about any rude comments about his speech!
[Image via HBO Max/YouTube]
The post The <i>Friends</i> Cast Turned Down A MILLION DOLLARS For The Reunion Because It Wasn't Enough?!? appeared first on Perez Hilton.
