The cast of Friends became international superstars almost overnight thanks to the show's success. Before they were Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe, and Joey, they were just ordinary actors looking for work.All successful actors have to do a few unusual roles before they hit a home run that makes them a celebrity, and everyone on Friends was no different. Matthew Perry was in one of those "very special episodes" that were common in the 1980s. Courtney Cox was in an iconic music video. Jennifer Aniston got her start in an E.T. rip-off, yes really. This is what everyone's favorite coffee drinkers were doing before they started hanging out at Central Perk.
9 David Schwimmer Did TV Dramas
Schwimmer's early career was not as exciting or as strange as his colleagues' were. His debut television role was a supporting part in the ABC made-for-tv movie A Deadly Silence in 1989. Between then and the premiere of Friends in 1994, he was a working actor in both film and television. He did shows like L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, and had a small role in Wolf starring Jack Nicholson. He also had a short yet recurring role in the television drama The Wonder Years.
8 Matthew Perry Played A Drunk Driver
One of Matthew Perry's earliest roles was in the sitcom Growing Pains in one of the show's saddest episodes. Perry played Sandy in Growing Pains for three episodes, and in his final episode he was killed off. Sandy was Carol Seaver's college boyfriend who seemed destined for greatness because he was an excellent student. But Sandy, after a night out with Carol, got into a car accident that left him hospitalized because he drove drunk. The episode ends when we learn that Sandy died from internal bleeding.
7 Matt Le Blanc Started In Music Videos
Le Blanc did a few short and feature-length independent films before Friends, but his biggest on-screen roles were in rock and roll videos. Le Blanc can be seen in Jon Bon Jovi's Miracle, Tom Petty's Into The Great Wide Open, and Bob Seger's classic Night Moves. He was also in several episodes of the risque drama Red Shoe Diaries, a fitting role for someone who goes on to play the womanizing Joey Tribbiani.
6 Jennifer Aniston Was In A Cheesy Horror Film
Aniston's first leading role in a film came in 1993, one year before Friends premiered. Funny enough, it is also considered her worst role by several critics. Aniston starred in the Leprechaun movie, the first in a cheesy series of horror movies about, yes, a monstrous cannibal leprechaun. The movie made $8.6 million against its $1 million budget.
5 Matt Le Blanc Was A Recurring Character On Three Different Shows
In addition to the music videos he did with iconic rockers, Le Blanc was working consistently in television. He had one recurring role that would carry over into not one, not two, but three different FOX sitcoms. Perry played Vinnie Verduci in Top of The Heap, Married With Children, and in the failed spin-off Vinnie and Bobby. One year after Vinnie and Bobby was canceled, he became Joey Tribbiani and the rest is history.
4 Courtney Cox Was In An Iconic Bruce Springsteen Video
Like Le Blanc, Cox also worked in music videos before hitting it big as Monica Gellar. But Cox has a special place in rock and roll history. In Bruce Springsteen's music video for his hit song "Dancing In The Dark," there is an iconic moment when he invites a woman from the audience up onto the stage to dance with him. Yes, that woman was a young Courtney Cox, who had just begun her acting career. The Springsteen video was Cox's first on-screen role ever.
3 Lisa Kudrow Was On Cheers
There is an episode of Cheers where Woody finds out the young woman he is co-starring in a play with has a crush on him. Kudrow played that young actress. Kudrow is almost unrecognizable in the show because her famous blonde hair was a deep shade of black.
2 Lisa Kudrow's First Movie Became A Popular Episode Of Another Show
But what is more surprising is that her first on-screen role was as an extra in the made-for-tv film Overdrawn At The Memory Bank, which aired on PBS in 1983 and starred Raul Julia from The Addams Family. It would go on to be featured in the movie riffing show Mystery Science Theater 3000 and is one of the show's most popular episodes. Coincidentally, another cast member got their start in a film that would also be featured on Mystery Science Theater.
1 Jennifer Aniston's First Movie Was An ET Rip Off
That movie was Mac And Me and it was Jennifer Aniston's first film ever. Like Kudrow, Aniston was just an extra and had no lines, and it is challenging to spot her in the film but not impossible. Mac And Me is basically just ET, but with extensive product placement and bad jokes. Aniston is only in the movie for a couple seconds, she was an extra in a McDonald's parking lot watching a group of dancers. Fun fact: another Friend's star, Paul Rudd, has used a clip from Mac and Me to prank Conan O'Brien for several years.