Gabrielle Union’s Story of Mistreatment on ‘Friends’ Set Resurfaces

It’s pretty clear why Gabrielle Union wasn’t seen in HBO Max’s Friends reunion. An old clip of the actress has resurfaced in which she revealed she had a less than pleasant time on the set of the popular sitcom. While she doesn’t specify who did her wrong, she claims she spent the week working on the show being talked down to by her co-workers. “That dual consciousness though is what prepares me to go then do an episode of Friends after being on City of Angels,” she begins in the video, which was recorded on Oct. 19, 2017, during a Free Library of Philadelphia event..

She goes on to mimic someone asking her if she knew what a “mark” was before her scene. “Yeah, I’m an actor… didn’t have to audition for this job because I was just on a hit show on CBS,” she continued. “But the man talked to me in sing-song voice for the whole week. But, I’d been there. Do Buckwheat, we love it when you entertain us. That’s where I’m most comfortable –– assimilate. disappear. Be complacent where you’re nice and safe.”

There were a number of guest stars who came back to join the original cast for the reunion. Though, unfortunately not everyone who graced the set could make it for the special. “Well, we couldn’t have everybody on, because it’s only an hour and 45 minutes. And you’ve got to pay attention — the main nub of the show has got to be about the six cast members,” Ben Winston, who directed the special, explained to The Wrap. “So you can’t have too many cameos because of course, there were hundreds of amazing people who were in Friends over the years. Sadly, we couldn’t get everybody in.”

Another revelation discovered from the special: infamous couple Rachel and Ross (played by Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer) also had some chemistry off-camera. “The first season, we- I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer said, to which Aniston replies, “It was reciprocated.” Schwimmer goes on to say: “At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other. But it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship. So and we never crossed that boundary. We respected that.”