David Schwimmer reveals how he struggled with fame from Friends
"It made me want to hide under a baseball cap."
Friends star David Schwimmer has revealed how he really struggled with the fame the show brought.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter the actor who turns 50 this year explained how the fame affected him saying it was, 'terrifying' and 'pretty jarring'.
In the candid interview for the publication's podcast he explained how he was pushed to be successful by his parents and 'not going to college was not an option' so before his TV roles he attended college.
In 1988 he even co-founded a theatre company in Chicago which is still around called Lookingglass which he describes as his 'most stable artist home'.
In the podcast David describes how he struggled for a big break for a number of years alternating working at Lookingglass in Chicago and waiting tables in Los Angeles while doing work as an extra.
It was then while he was back in Chicago that he got the call asking him to audition for the part in Friends. When he initially said 'no' the show's director Jim Burrows called him requesting a meeting.
Friends | © Friendsfest
David was offered the part of Ross Gellar in his late 20s, but he says it took him years to deal with the fame which made him a recluse, "As an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, so I used to walk around with my head up, really engaged and watching people." He said, "The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite: It made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen."
Since Friends David has appeared many TV and film roles as a director as well as an actor. He was even offered the role that Will Smith eventually took in Men in Black, however most recently he played the part of Robert Kardashian in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.