Everybody knows that David Schwimmer has always had a love/hate relationship with his on-screen monkey pal, Marcel.
As per the Friends reunion special which aired earlier this year, the hate factor to the relationship flared up once again, where Schwimmer reflected on his interactions with Marcel on the show.
He said, “Here is my problem – the monkey, obviously, was trained. It had to hit its mark and do its thing right at the perfect time.”
“What inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up because the monkey didn’t do its job right,” Schwimmer continued. “So we would have to reset, we’d have to go again, because the monkey didn’t get it right.”
Even back in 1995, Schwimmer actually had some pretty harsh words to say about the monkey. Holding nothing back he said, “I hate the monkey.”
“The trainers won’t let me bond with it. They’re really, really possessive. It’s like, ‘Land on your marks, do your job, don’t touch or bond with the monkey.'” He added, “It’s a bummer.”
And now as reported by Entertainment Weekly, there’s apparently another side to the argument. Mike Morris, who was the animal trainer on the set of Friends reckons that it was jealousy that sparked the hatred.
Morris told The Sun, “This is just my opinion… [but] the first couple episodes [Schwimmer] was pretty friendly with the monkey, and after that, the monkey was getting a lot of laughs, and either it was throwing him off or [he was] getting a little jealous.”
“I don’t know,” he continued, “One of those two things.”
Morris also confirmed that Schwimmer’s remarks on not being able to “bond” with the monkey are true. But there’s a good reason for that.
He said, “It is true that we prefer that actors don’t become too friendly with the monkey. An actor is a prop to the monkey and has to work with that prop.”
“We don’t want them to become friends because then [monkeys] think, ‘Oh, it’s my friend, I don’t have to work…’ They just want to go hang out with their friend instead of doing what they’re supposed to do. It’s not out of spite or malice.”
Either way Marcel was doing the best he can. Let’s ease up on the guy.
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