TOW Johnny Makes Friends (London)
--> David Schwimmer:
JOHNNY: Mr. Schwimmer!
DAVID: Oh, how'd you get out here?
JOHNNY: I've managed to get out, it's okay, I can come out.
DAVID: Security!
JOHNNY: No, they all know, it's fine.
DAVID: Oh, okay. So how's it going?
JOHNNY: Yeah, not too bad. They're gonna give me a few minutes to talk
to you, that's the good news.
DAVID: Oh, good.
JOHNNY: Are you enjoying yourself?
DAVID: Yeah, yeah, I am.
JOHNNY: That's the warm up. In the show you play quite a geeky character,
just a little bit.
DAVID: Yes.
JOHNNY: But he wouldn't think that about himself, obviously.
DAVID: Absolutely not.
JOHNNY: Do you ever feel like, just yourself, taking your character
by the v-neck and saying 'come on, be a bit more brutal about this'?
DAVID: Yeah, I mean I guess yeah. Over the last couple of years during
the course of the show we've been able to do a little more range. He's
definitely has his strictly geek moments where he talks about dinosaurs.
Then there are those moments when he thinks he's Mr. Cool Guy.
JOHNNY: Sometimes, say you've got the build up of sexual tension between
him and Rachel, did you ever think 'come on!'?
DAVID: Oh yeah, absolutely. I was like that, but I also enjoyed watching
the stories develop and watching the tension developing and seeing what
could possibly happen now that could keep them apart. And then when
we finally were together, to feel the audience's investment in that
moment, like our first kiss. They're so behind us and everything, it's
so thrilling.
JOHNNY: I know you know about drama and drama works. Did you think that
the fact you'd finally kissed Rachel that-
DAVID: We'd consummated our relationship?
JOHNNY: Yeah. Did you think that might weaken the show in some way?
DAVID: I never thought it was going to weaken the show itself. I knew
that, if anything, it would take the tension out of, obviously, the
courtship between the two of them, but of course, the writing being
as strong as it is, they took it in another direction and had me turn
into Mr. Insecure, jealous and her kinda consumed with work and then
have them eventually split and so then we're kinda like, angry and then
we get like cats and dogs, fighting all the time. I think the attraction
and the tension is still there and will always be there over the years.
JOHNNY: See, you did your humble thing there. I really wanna try and
learn from you. I wanna learn to schwim.
DAVID: Schwim being (does his thing).
JOHNNY: I wanna learn to schwim, no cause I'm very bearing, quite loud.
DAVID: Yes, I've heard.
JOHNNY: I wanna take in board a little bit of that Ross humility. Show
me humble, how do I do that.
DAVID: Well, uh, (clears throat).
JOHNNY: The throat clearing, that's it.
DAVID: Well yeah I can't possibly show you (looks down).
JOHNNY: You look down.
DAVID: Yeah, I guess. The thing is, honestly, to be perfectly honest,
when I'm like at a party or something, with strangers in a big room
I am the most intensely shy guy. I'm not like making all the jokes,
the life of the party. That only happens when I'm with friends, buddies
of mine.
JOHNNY: Just friends, as in?
DAVID: Y'know, buddies, mates, Matthew, Matt.
JOHNNY: Y'see what you did.
DAVID: If I'm at, like, a bachelor party I'm really quite shy.
JOHNNY: I'm the same.
DAVID: Really?
JOHNNY: Inside.
DAVID: Outside, you're actually-
JOHNNY: It's all inside, it's just reactions.
DAVID: There's a lot of pain in there, isn't there?
JOHNNY: There is. Are you better at dealing with women in real life
that Ross is?
DAVID: God, I hope so. Although, no ring on my finger, so.
JOHNNY: Yeah, I noticed that.
DAVID: Some problem. I like to think I have the best qualities of Ross.
I think he's romantic, I think he's loyal, I think he's a stand up guy,
he's a family man. I kind of identify with all those things, but I think
he's a little naive.
JOHNNY: You're the only character, I understand, where the part was
actually written for you.
DAVID: Well yeah, I guess I had auditioned for the creators, not for
Friends, for another pilot they had written and I didn't get the part,
but I guess they remembered me, remembered my voice. They told me later
they had written this part for me and my mannerisms, so I didn't have
to audition.
JOHNNY: It's come so far, this show, hasn't it? I mean just take a look.
(Gets up to look at set). If we come out here and take a look. We've
got, look, 1, 2, 3 [sets], a big church there which we're not allowed
to look at, the end scene with the dining room, we've got flowers, it's
huge.
DAVID: The biggest fear I had was the show is about a bunch of losers,
y'know, trying to get their lives together and the more successful,
or perceived successful, the show was the harder, I think, it could
be to see the difference between us and the characters. So when you
watch the show you would think 'oh man, those guys have a Porsche'.
JOHNNY: I know you're a literate man. I know this about you. So I think
this is a great British poet. Are you familiar with Pam Eires?
DAVID: No I'm not.
JOHNNY: (Gives him a book) It says there, with these hands, a collection
of work.
DAVID: Oh, it's a great photo of Pam.
JOHNNY: Enjoy that, keep it beside the toilet.
DAVID: Thank you so much. I really-wow.
JOHNNY: Do we do some kind of ritual handshake? (they do a handshake
thing)
DAVID: No, you gotta snap (does), yeah.
JOHNNY: Okay, I've gotta go back over to my little room now.
DAVID: I'm gonna curl up with Pam. (Reads) Will I have to be sexy at
60? I can't believe this is the book you gave me. Excellent, thank you
very much. Oh, it's a poem.
JOHNNY: You've gotta imagine like a West Country accent- (reads) Will
I have to be sexy at 60? Will I have to keep trying so hard?
DAVID: I like the roll of the 'r' there.
JOHNNY: Yeah, rural.
DAVID: (reading) Well I'm just gonna slump with my dilingers hump and
watch myself turn into lard.
JOHNNY: How about that? David Schwimmer reads Pam Eires. She'll be delighted
y'know, the only airplay she's had in years.
DAVID: Yes, finally!
JOHNNY: Cheers, I've gotta go back to my little room where they keep
me.
Adresser
