As one of the most extensive series in TV history, one Friends episode stands out as one of the series’ highest-rated episodes, and no, it isn’t actually the series finale from 2004. The episode in question is the Super Bowl episode, The One After the Superbowl. While it’s the highest-rated Super Bowl lead-out show to this day, some of the stars weren’t too impressed with Jean-Claude Van Damme’s behaviour on his Friends episode.

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Friends Super Bowl Episode

Although Friends was already a household name then, the 1996 episode shot the show into the stratosphere, having had 52.9 million viewers. The One After the Superbowl had a few big names as guests joined the cast, and even directors and writers filled in for minor roles.

In the episode, Rachel and Monica are fighting over a chance to date the infamous Jean-Claude Van Damme (starring as himself, of course); while Phoebe is being her adorable but inappropriate self, Joey falls head over heels for a crazed fan (played by Brooke Shields), Chandler tries to chat up a former classmate (Julia Roberts) who is on her own mission for revenge, and finally, Ross is reunited with his beloved pet monkey, Marcel.

The hourlong Friends special wasn’t planned from the start. NBC executives were trying to decide which show would take the slot after the most popular event on the TV calendar. With options like failing shows, they decided, why not do it in Friends?

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The NBC Entertainment president at the time, Warren Littlefield, said that they had to flip the script and decided to “give the people what they want” and use it in one of the hottest shows. While the episode was a resounding success with viewers, writers, directors, and stars of the show alike had less than desirable things to say about Jean-Claude Van Damme’s behaviour on set.

Jean-Claude Van Damme had to be asked twice not to put his tongue in his female co-stars’ mouths…

After the infamous reunion aired on Netflix, directors, creators, and some guest stars got together for an interview and discussed many influential things in the show. They particularly remembered the Super Bowl episode.

While they talked about the many stars that were a pleasure to work with, a few interviewees agreed that working with Jean-Claude Van Damme was a little complicated. Littlefield even joked that he didn’t know who was more difficult between him and the monkey who starred as Marcel.

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The entire filming day was thrown out of whack because Van Damme arrived on set “three or four hours” late, leading to Michael Lembeck, one of the directors on the episode, saying that he was unprepared and arrogant.

Lembeck also mentioned that both Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green) and Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), who was starring as warring love interests for Van Damme in the episode, complained that his behaviour was unnecessary, asking the director to politely ask him to stop.

The team shot Aniston’s scene with Jean-Claude first, and afterwards, she asked him to speak to Van Damme, saying, “Would you do me a favour and ask him not to put his tongue in my mouth when he’s kissing me?” Of course, Lembeck spoke to Van Damme about it, but after Cox’s scene, she also said, “Lem, can you tell him not to put his tongue in my mouth?”

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Lembeck was mortified that he had to ask Van Damme again to respect the ladies’ requests. Kevin Bright, another director on the episode, confirmed that “We asked him several times.”

While I’m sure many people would faint at the chance of getting a kiss from Jean-Claude Van Damme, it’s sad to think he had to be asked so many times to respect the ladies’ requests.

What do you think about Jean-Claude Van Damme and his female co-stars’ complaints on Friends?

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

“Please Tell Him Not To Put His Tongue In My Mouth” – Friends Stars Complained About Jean-Claude Van Damme Written by Megan Oosthuizen for Fortress of Solitude