Friends guest star Olivia Williams discusses working on the popular sitcom, calling her experience on the show “alarming” and “harrowing.”
Friends guest star Olivia Williams reveals her extreme experience working on the sitcom. Throughout its ten seasons, Friends earned its as a show that knew how to utilize its special guest stars, whether Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt late in its run. But the NBC sitcom also featured several actors who would go on to much bigger roles after their brief one-off appearance. Williams, who recently portrayed Camilla Parker Bowles in Netflix’s The Crown, is one of them.
In an interview with The Independent, Williams opened up about her time on Friends. The actor, who appeared in two episodes of the show and shared scenes with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani, describes testifying an unnamed producer yelling and talks about her “harrowing” experience in the make-up chair. Williams’ quote is below:
Gosh. Well, just as an example, 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 shouted at her : ‘You’re not funny!’ And she didn’t come back the next day. So that was alarming.
Oh, and 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. Literally, ‘please don’t take my eyebrows off, I might need them in another job!’ But yes, that’s the sense in which it was harrowing.
Who Did Olivia Williams Play On Friends? (&Where You Know Her From)
Williams plays Felicity, a bridesmaid of Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale) in two Friends episodes. She appears in the famous two-part season 4 finale “The One With Ross’s Wedding,” where Ross mistakenly says Rachel’s name. Williams’ character has a brief fling with Joey, though she does not get mentioned after her initial appearances.
Williams has a seen varied filmography and was recently in the dark comedy The Trouble with Jessica, in which two upper-middle-class British couples conspire to hide a dead body to keep the value of a property for sale. Her other big screen credits include Rushmore, The Sixth Sense, Hanna, X-Men: The Last Stand, Maps to the Stars, Victoria & Abdul, and 2020’s The Father, which earned six nominations and two wins at the Academy Awards.
On the small screen, in addition to her recent stint on The Crown, Williams starred in the Joss Whedon drama shows Dollhouse and The Nevers. Along with Emily Watson, Williams will lead the upcoming spinoff show Dune: Prophecy which is slated to premiere on Max. Although Williams’ experience on Friends doesn’t sound like it was very positive, it didn’t stop the veteran performer from pursuing several exciting roles in the years since.
