The famous American sitcom Friends has been ruling fans’ hearts even after almost two decades of its closure. As per a 2019 report of Vulture, the show racked up a whopping 16 million weekly audience in the US. While the perfect casting and their individual storylines were a significant reason for the show’s success, there were a few elements that continued to provide hilarious meme material. One such recurring storyline is Ross Geller’s multiple marriages and divorces that led the other five friends to constantly pull his leg on the show. 

Starting with Carol Willick, Ross, played by David Schwimmer, went on to marry two other women in the series. Though Ross had a good chemistry with all his exes, there was one who thought to be replaced. And back in 2022, the director of the Emmy Award-winning series revealed the same.

James Burrows wanted to replace the Friends actress 

One of the highlights of Friends was Ross and Rachel’s chemistry, owing to the fact that both the stars were crushing on each other during the making of the show. However, apart from the chemistry, it was also Aniston and Schwimmer’s skills as a comic actor that made the show shine brighter. This was something that Helen Baxendale, who played Ross’ second wife, lacked. And even director James Burrows recently revealed how he considered firing Baxendale in his memoir, Directed By James Burrows. 

He talked about directing the 53-year-old actress in the episode titled The One with All The Rugby and said “She was nice but not particularly funny”. Discussing her lack of chemistry with Schwimmer, the director further went on to write “Schwimmer had no one to bounce off” and that “It was like clapping with one hand.” However, the actress got lucky due to the tight deadlines and remained on the show for 14 episodes, and eventually parted ways as she was also pregnant. 

The character of Emily leaving the show amused fans, as she was and still is the most hated character on Friends.

Why fans hated Helen Baxendale’s character so much

Recurring characters and guest appearances were not new in Friends’ world. While some appearances won fans’ hearts, others faced a lot of scrutiny over the years. One such character who received a lot of resentment from the fans was Emily Waltham. Emily made her debut in the 4th season of Friends right after Ross and Rachel broke up. After getting to know each other for only six weeks, Ross and Emily decided to marry each other, followed by Ross uttering Rachel’s name at the altar. And the rest is history. 

Instead of sympathizing with Emily, the fandom criticized the way she treated both Ross and Rachel after the wedding. They felt that Emily’s character was manipulative and her demands for “selling everything Rachel ever touched” were very unreasonable as per a Reddit thread. Fans speculated that Baxendale left Friends owing to the amount of negativity her character faced. However, the British actress never confirmed the rumor and said she left the show because she wanted to prioritize her family at that point. 

What are your thoughts on James Burrows’ statement about Helen Baxendale? Do you think Emily’s character deserved so much hate?