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Matthew Perry said ‘Friends’ colleague David Schwimmer suggested renegotiating equal pay.
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“It was a decision that turned out to be extremely lucrative over time,” Perry said in his memoir.
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By the final season, the six main cast members were making over $1 million per episode.
Matthew Perry said “Friends” actor David Schwimmer suggested that the six main cast members collectively renegotiate their contracts to get equal pay.
In his memoir released Nov. 1 and titled “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry, who starred as Chandler Bing in “Friends,” recalls Schwimmer (Ross Geller) approaching him while he was on set. was with the idea of renegotiating during season one.
Perry said Schwimmer was a standout during the show’s first season, using his popularity to benefit himself and his fellow cast members.
“During that first year – the year of David – he showed up in my dressing room one day,” recalls Perry. He had given an original hangdog expression to his character and was just damn funny. He was also the first of us to do a commercial, was on ‘The Tonight Show’, bought a house, got his own movie. He was the hot guy that first year, and rightly so. He’d been hilarious.”
Perry said Schwimmer told him: “When we renegotiate our contracts, we have to do it as a team. We should all get the same amount.”
“He was by far the one in the best position to negotiate,” Perry wrote in his memoir. “I couldn’t believe what he was saying. Needless to say I was delighted. I was delighted to take advantage of his generosity of spirit.”
Perry credited Schwimmer with financially carrying the cast through 10 seasons of the show, which ran from 1994 to 2004 on NBC
“It was a decision that turned out to be extremely lucrative over time,” Perry said.
“His decision forced us to take care of each other during what turned out to be a lot of stressful network negotiations, and it gave us an enormous amount of power,” he added.
The “17 Again” star said he was paid $22,500 for the “Friends” pilot, according to a 1996 New York Times report.
He said that by season eight, the cast — consisting of Perry, Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), and Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani) — was making $1 million a year. episode.
By the 10th and final season, the stars were making $1,100,040 per episode, and we asked for fewer episodes,” said Perry.
According to Variety, the cast made at least $2.5 million each when they reunited in 2021 for an unscripted special for HBO Max.
“We owed David’s kindness and astute business acumen to what was offered to us,” he added. “I owe you about $30 million, David.”
Perry reiterated his gratitude to Schwimmer in the final chapter of his memoir. dollars a week.”
Aniston, Cox and Kudrow talked about the importance of equal pay in an interview for “The Howard Stern Show” in June 2021.
“We all do the exact same amount of work,” Aniston said. “I wouldn’t have felt comfortable if I knew I deserved more.”
“We all felt that way,” Cox added. “I thought the most important thing – as we all did – that we were all equal in every way. That was the first time people were all together in a cast. I think it was scary, probably, for productions after that .”
Kudrow said the core cast members supported each other and harbored no animosity or competitiveness.
“We have not caused any bitterness or rivalry within each other,” she said. “We were nothing by supporting each other, especially the girls, but also the boys – all six of us.”
Read the original article on Insider
