Friends director reveals it was a struggle to work with ‘not funny’ Helen Baxendale but he had no time to recast her: ‘David Schwimmer had no one to bounce off!’

Helen Baxendale has been labeled “nice but not funny” by the legendary American television director who shot her in Friends.

James Burrows, who has directed more than a thousand episodes of sitcoms including Cheers and Will & Grace, revealed that Helen was difficult to work with because the other actors couldn’t fuel any comedic energy.

As a result, the attempted comedy was “like clapping one hand,” said the director, who noted that David Schwimmer – who played Ross Gellar – “had no one to bounce off of.”

Helen joined the show in series four, playing Ross’s English girlfriend and then-fiance Emily Waltham in 14 episodes of the sitcom.

Their relationship was short-lived, with the romance imploding after Ross said his ex Rachel Green’s (Jennifer Aniston) name instead of hers at the altar.

James reflected on working with Helen when he directed the episode The One with All the Rugby, which sees Ross play the sport for the first time with her British friends.

“She was nice, but not particularly funny,” he recalled in his new memoir, directed by James Burrows. Schwimmer had no one to bounce off of. It was like clapping with one hand.

“In sitcoms and any romantic comedy, the funny is just as important as the chemistry. We found that any new girlfriend had to be as funny to Ross as Rachel was.

‘You often can’t reschedule due to tight deadlines or other logistical considerations. You don’t cast anyone as a stooge unless it’s for one episode.

“You need someone who can laugh. Sometimes you start an arc and it doesn’t work out, so you have to get rid of that person. If it’s a day player, it’s a quick goodbye.

“The reverse is also true. When there’s chemistry, the writers get to work trying to find a way to keep the actor.”

Cold Feet star Helen previously said of her experience on Friends about the cast, “They were all really nice and professional. But we’ve never been good friends.

“People expect, because it’s called Friends, that everyone was good friends, but they were real professionals. They had been doing it for years and I was one of many guest stars to perform.

‘I am very proud and happy to have participated in such an incredibly successful and international show.’

“It’s always a talking point and it was a really clever set-up – even now young people in particular seem to love it.

“But it doesn’t feel like part of my life at all right now. I consider it a strange, surreal little mistake in my life, almost like a dream.”

Helen was written out of the sitcom earlier than the producers’ intentions were, as she and her partner, film director, producer and writer David L. Williams, were expecting their first child.

She told The Daily Mail in 2012 that she doesn’t regret leaving the show, commenting, “I’ve had a glimpse of what fame is all about, and I decided there was nothing in it. It contained nothing that mattered.

‘Some people can handle that well; it sits just fine on their shoulders. But it wasn’t for me.’

Friends were great fun, but I was just there so they could make fun jokes about England. And I expected it too, and in America you have to be thin.’

Of her newfound fame, she said, “You couldn’t walk down the street to buy a pint of milk. In fact, you had nowhere to go. It was impossible to mingle with the crowd and do what ordinary people do.

‘I saw it as a gilded prison. It was something I was not prepared for. But it was quickly forgotten. I don’t get the same attention now.

“Fame just didn’t fit into my life. Anyway, I don’t know how much it would have made if I had stayed in the States. I didn’t want to live in America when all my circumstances brought me back to Britain. I don’t regret it for a minute.

“For me, there are many aspects to being ambitious. Yes, there is your career, but there are also many other ambitions. There is a perception that television is glamorous and that it is the pinnacle of your existence. I don’t think so.’

Helen last made headlines in 2021 when The Mail On Sunday revealed she had left four sisters ‘high and dry’ when she offered an extra £200,000 for an eight-bedroom £1.7m home, only to be ‘no more’. to answer’, which means the sale fell through.

The actress even wrote a personal note to say she loved the eight-bedroom Queen Anne home and how much her three children would love to live there.

The siblings expressed frustration and anger at the couple’s behavior after being left “in the dark” and forced to accept a “significantly lower” offer after putting it up for sale again.