David Schwimmer talks fame and why he couldn’t stand the ‘Friends’ theme tune
By Jack Guy, CNN
(CNN) — “Friends” star David Schwimmer has opened up about fame and the impact the show’s huge success had on him, revealing that he struggled to listen to the theme tune for a while as he “just had heard it so many times.”
Schwimmer discussed his dislike of “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts during an appearance on the “Making a Scene” podcast, hosted by British comedians Matt Lucas and David Walliams.
“I’ll be really honest, there was a time for quite a while that just hearing the theme song would really… uggh,” said Schwimmer in the episode earlier this week.
“You know what I mean? I just had that reaction. I just had heard it so many times,” he added.
“Any time you’d go on a show or a talkshow or an interview, that would be your intro song. So I just didn’t have the greatest response to it for a period of time,” said Schwimmer.
Schwimmer portrayed Ross Geller in the hit comedy, which spanned 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 and also starred Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.
Schwimmer also spoke about his struggles with fame, recalling how the last time he was able to appear in public without attracting attention was in 1994.
“Jim Burrows (“Friends” director) took the cast to Vegas… this was before we were on the air or anything,” he said.
“We were walking through the casino at one point, and he said to us, ‘remember this moment, it’s the last time you’re going to be able to walk through a casino like this’ – basically, with total anonymity,” said Schwimmer.
He went on to recount one incident that hammered home Burrows’ point.
“The moment that I realised Jim Burrows was right, I was at LAX and I was trying to catch a flight. I’m not one of those actors that has an entourage with me. It’s me, that’s it. I just go solo,” said Schwimmer.
“I’m going through LAX trying to find my flight, I hear a blood-curdling scream. I was genuinely frightened. I thought someone was being stabbed or something,” he said.
“And a group of girls come and like just accost me… literally just scream and grab me,” added Schwimmer. “And they won’t let me go… I mean, it was terrifying.”
“It took me a long time to get adjusted to that kind of fame,” added Schwimmer.
“At that time you had three cars following you everywhere you went… staked outside your house. You had absolutely no privacy, ever.”
Schwimmer also told Lucas and Walliams how his relationship with “Friends” and its theme tune has evolved over the years, particularly after his child started watching the show, aged about nine.
“I’d be making breakfast or whatever, and I’d hear my kid’s laughter,” he said. “My whole relationship to that song and to the show changed again.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
