Actor David Schwimmer is practically synonymous with his “Friends” character, paleontologist Ross Geller, whom he depicted for 10 seasons, but what if he had starred in a blockbuster hit during that same stretch of stardom? Could he have been a movie star?
Schwimmer certainly thinks so.
The 57-year-old actor shared during an appearance on the “Origins with Cush Jumbo” podcast that he had been offered a role in the 1997 hit “Men in Black,” but he ultimately passed on the opportunity. Host and actress Cush Jumbo assumed that Schwimmer passed on the film due to a scheduling conflict with his smash TV series, but the actor refuted that idea.
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David Schwimmer thinks he could have been “a movie star” if he had taken a role in “Men in Black.” (Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
“That’s not why I turned it down,” he explained. “That was a brutal decision. I had just finished filming ‘The Pallbearer,’ my first film with Gwyneth Paltrow, and there were high expectations of that, which didn’t come true,” he said, laughing.
“It was kind of a bomb, but there were high expectations and the studio, which was Miramax, wanted to lock me into a three-picture deal at a fixed price and I said I would do that if I got to direct my first movie,” he said.
Gwyneth Paltrow and David Schwimmer star in 1996’s “The Pallbearer.” (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
After “months of negotiations,” Schwimmer said he and the studio made it official; he would act in three of their movies but also get to direct his “entire theater company,” in a film, which he started in college. “All these unknown actors but I was going to put them on the map, basically. I was going to let everyone discover the talent of this amazing company,” he said.
Schwimmer’s directorial debut would be the 1998 comedy film “Since You’ve Been Gone,” which takes place at a 10-year high school reunion. He also starred in the film, alongside Joey Slotnick, Teri Hatcher and Lara Flynn Boyle.
“We found this amazing script and we were developing it. We started preproduction. All my best friends in the world in my theater company quit their jobs so they could be in this film over the summer, which was going to be a six-week shoot in Chicago,” he described. “Budget’s set. We’re in preproduction, hired the whole crew, everything’s going, and that’s when I was offered ‘Men in Black,'” he revealed.
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David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston, as Ross Geller and Rachel Green, are seen in a season 8 episode of “Friends.” (NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images)
“It was a direct conflict with [the movie.]” he explained. “My summer window from ‘Friends’ was four months. I had a four-month hiatus and ‘Men in Black’ was going to shoot exactly when I was going to direct this film with my company. And of course, it was an amazing opportunity. I mean you have to follow your gut. You have to follow your heart. And look — I’m really aware, whatever 20 years later, maybe more, that would have made me, I think, a movie star.”
David Schwimmer says he only had a four-month hiatus from filming “Friends” after wrapping for the summer, and he chose to direct a film instead of star in “Men in Black.” (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
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“I mean, if you look at the success of that film, and that franchise….my career would be in a very different [place]. Might have taken — probably would have taken a very different trajectory. However, my theater company and that relationship with all those people would probably have ended,” he admitted on the podcast. “I don’t think it would have recovered. Those people had quit their jobs to do that movie.”
“I don’t know if I made the right choice,” he continued, although Jumbo assured him that he had. A representative for Scwhimmer did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s inquiry about what role he would have portrayed in the movie.
Will Smith, left, and Tommy Lee Jones starred in the wildly successful film “Men in Black.” (Columbia Pictures/Getty Images)
“Men In Black” famously starred Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
The 1997 film went on to gross nearly $600 million internationally at the box office, having an additional two sequels with the original cast.
Caroline Thayer is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Follow Caroline Thayer on Twitter at @carolinejthayer. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].
