The guest stars on Friends was a who’s who, and everyone wanted to be on the show.
Aisha Tyler talked about her groundbreaking role on Friends. She talked to Entertainment Tonight about her time on Friends, almost 20 years after her character Charlie Wheeler became a recurring character on blockbuster sitcom. Tyler said the cast was so kind and welcoming, even though she says she was “petrified.” Her knees were knocking, her teeth chattered the entire time she was on set.
Tyler says. “We walked out, and we did a curtain call [where] everybody [does a] bow to the audience at the end of the show. As we’re backstage, Matthew Perry just leans in and goes, ‘Get ready for your life to change.’”
Tyler noted “It was a really sweet, kind thing to say to someone who’s petrified and just trying not to pee on herself a little bit …”
The Criminal Minds actress recalled that Perry was right in saying her life was about to change, considering that Friends was the biggest show on television at the time.
Aisha Tyler made sure she went into the audition room for the sitcom after having seen every episode and being a huge fan herself. She recalled the day she walked onto the set and tried to spot a naked guy across the street, referencing, of course, to the show’s Ugly Naked Guy. “Fortunately, it’s just a hallway back there,” she quipped.
Tyler believes that being a fan of the series helped her land her role because she knew how to tell a Friends joke. “The show had a tempo,” she explained. It had a way of emphasizing words in different ways more than you would in normal conversation. She says the cast just had a way with wordplay and a way of delivering lines, that was unique to the show.”
She says, “To this day, people come up to me and go, ‘Charlie, Charlie,’ or they just go, ‘Black girl from Friends.
Tyler says, “Sometimes you don’t really know what a job is going to do, how it’s going to change your life, … if it’s going to be a hit. You don’t even know if it’s going to be good. You’re just there to do your best work. But I knew when I got Friends that it was a big deal.”
Here’s a great blooper from Aisha Tyler’s time on Friends. And here are others that appeared on the show –