- “Friends” is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
- James Michael Tyler, who played Central Perk’s manager, Gunther, told Insider that one of his favorite memories on the show was filming the finale with Jennifer Aniston.
- He said they both couldn’t stop crying.
- “It took forever to shoot because both Jennifer and I, we could not look each other in the eyes and do that scene without bursting into tears,” he said.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
James Michael Tyler still remembers his last day on the set of “Friends.”
“It was sad. It was bittersweet,” Tyler told Insider of one of his favorite memories from working on the NBC show, filming the finale, adding that there was “a lot of crying.”
Tyler played Gunther, the Central Perk manager, for 10 seasons, as the group of six friends wandered in and out of his coffee shop.
For the majority of the show, Gunther harbored a crush on Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), but he never shared his feelings with her until he mustered up the courage on the series finale. It’s a moment Tyler will always remember.
"When Gunther professed his love to Rachel, that scene, it took forever to shoot because both Jennifer and I, we could not look each other in the eyes and do that scene without bursting into tears," he said.
Tyler said that if Aniston looked at him, she would start to cry right away; the same went for him.
"I looked at her, and I started crying, and then makeup's over there trying to touch us up and like, 'OK, let's do it again,'" he said. "So it was very, very emotional."
In the scene, Rachel returns Gunther's affection but says she probably doesn't love him in the same way.
Tyler spoke with Insider on a replica of the "Friends" couch at a pop-up for the show in New York City that runs through the first weekend in October. He said his other favorite moment from the series was from the first day he arrived on set for the show's second episode.
"I came in as an extra, and they were on a tiny soundstage at the Warner Bros. lot, and all of their dressing rooms were under the bleachers where the audience was set," Tyler recalled, adding that he never could have imagined being in New York City 25 years later still talking about the show.
"Nobody knew it was going to be a huge hit," he said.
Originally, the show was referred to as "Friends Like Us" for the filming of the pilot, before dropping to just one word.
Tyler said it was obvious from the get-go that Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer were thick as thieves, which proved promising for the comedy.
"I could tell immediately that the cast - they seemed like they knew each other for years," Tyler said. "And they really had only kind of just gotten together, but their chemistry was there from the beginning, and the writing was there from the beginning ... I had been on other sets and other shows where I'm like, 'It's OK.'"
"This was literally from day one, I was like, 'This is really, really going to be something special,'" he added.
"Friends" is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with several fan events and collectibles, ranging from a Lego set to Central Perk replicas.