Throughout its decade long run, Friends had many memorable guest stars. Some were popular with the audience, while others were meant to cause some distress among the main six. One of those characters turned out to be Emily, who briefly got in the way of Ross and Rachel.
In the following, we're going to take a closer look at the actress behind Emily, Helen Baxendale. We're going to detail her experience on the series, and what it was like at the time in her personal life. Baxendale admitted she struggled on the show, but did have praise for the main cast.
Along with revealing her experience, we'll also take a closer look at the show's lowest rated episode on IMDb. Emily was a major part of the episode, and that likely factored in to the poor rating. There are other factors as to why the episode was poorly received, we'll reveal what those are, while also taking a look at how the show was able to rebound quickly after the lowest rated episode.
Helen Baxendale Was Not Pleased With The Fame That Came With Her Time On Friends
Credit to Helen Baxendale for taking on a difficult role during her stint on Friends. The actress had the daunting task of getting in the way of Ross and Rachel. As expected, the Emily character was not a popular one and that contributed to the show's worst-rated episode, but we'll have more on that later.
As for Baxendale and her time on the series, she didn't enjoy the fame that came with it, especially from a media standpoint chasing her down off the set.
"The only adverse thing was for a short a period the paparazzi followed my friends and family around."
The actress also felt sympathy for the main cast and how they were harassed by the media on the norm.
"But I saw those people in Friends, for example, and thought, 'I don’t think that life is really what I want.' They were hounded. They weren’t able to walk into a supermarket and buy something."
"I didn’t think what I was doing warranted [all the attention]. It wasn’t about me, it was about this... this thing. This programme that I happened to be in for a few episodes. The whole thing was bonkers.”
Ultimately, there were positives for the actress, which included her relationship with the main cast. Baxendale praised the stars behind the scenes, and how easy they were to work with.
The One With The Invitation Featuring Ross And Emily's Wedding Prep Was The Worst Rated Episode
The One with the Invitation aired back in April of 1998. The season four episode features Ross and Emily sending out their wedding day invites. The episode did not sit well with fans for a few reasons. For starters, most of the episode was a recap type theme, showing the ups and downs of Ross and Rachel's time together. In addition, it made fans nervous that it was one step closer to Ross and Emily's wedding, while Rachel was declining an invitation.
All of those factors would lead to Friends' worst-rated episode, IMDb gave it a 6.9 star rating out of 10. It was the very worst of all the 236 episodes.
Nonetheless, the season rebounded very nicely just a few episodes later with the finale, The One with Ross's Wedding. The episode soared with the fans earning an 8.6 star rating on IMDb. Of course, the plot takes a major turn when Ross says Rachel's name at the altar. The moment signaled the end for Ross and Emily as they were never the same again. However, fans had to wait all the way until season 10 for Ross and Rachel to finally solidify their relationship.
Helen Baxendale Wasn't The Only Friends Guest-Star That Wasn't Content With Her Fame From The Series
Friends had a deep list of popular guest-stars throughout its run. Among the top of the list will always include the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Bruce Willis, Brad Pitt, and Christina Applegate.
There were other memorable guest-stars, but some of them weren't fond of their time on the series looking back. Take Elle Macpherson as an example. Similar to Baxendale, she was not fond of all the fame the came with it. Looking back, she would've passed on the series had she known how huge it would still be decades after it came to an end.
“If I’d known how important it was in the US, or how long it would be shown on TV, I may not have chosen to do it. It was a lot of pressure, if you look at in the way that it’ll be around for 20 or 30 years.”
Macpherson added that to this very day, her son's friends still think she's on the series, which just goes to show the power the sitcom still has on its audience years later.
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