Background information on Friends:
Friends is a 90’s Comedy TV show, based in Manhattan, about 6 friends who go through just about every life experience imaginable together; love, marriage, divorce, children, heartbreaks, fights, new jobs and job losses and all sorts of drama.
Follows the personal and professional lives of six twenty to thirty year-old friends living in the Manhattan borough of New York City.
Ross Geller, Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, and Phoebe Buffay are six twenty-somethings living in New York City. Over the course of 10 years and seasons, these friends go through life lessons, family, love, drama, friendship, and comedy.
The lives of twenty-something friends in New York City, each with their own dreams and drives: Joey a struggling actor, Monica a chef, Rachel a waitress who hopes to work in fashion, Ross a paleontologist, Chandler who hates his job in data processing, and Phoebe a masseuse/musician.
With a Little Help From My Friends” is a song written by the Beatles (and expertly covered by Joe Cocker) and it could easily be the subtitle for the thirty minute comedy, “Friends”. In 1994, the idea was created for “Friends”: a show about six friends in New York as they navigate their way through life and learn to grow up as they approach the third decade of their life. All, with the help from each other to get them through the obstacles that life naturally has for us. Monica is the excessively neat and organized “older sister” of the group, who works as a chef while yearning to find her ideal love. Ross, Monica’s older brother, is a paleontologist with a lifelong crush on Rachel.
He is a laid-back man with low self esteem and a recent divorcee. Rachel is the pretty, bubbly girl who spent most of her life as a spoiled rich princess. Now she must learn to face the real world. Chandler is Ross’ college buddy and the guy who will crack jokes at a moment’s notice. Phoebe is a lovable eccentric masseuse who easily could have fit in with Haight Ashbury in the 1960s. And Joey, the friend who has an inverse relationship between his good looks and his intelligence. He dreams of becoming an actor. These six individuals make up the cast of Friends. In May 2004, Friends officially ended it’s phenomenal 10 year run. The show’s time slot was taken over by a spin-off called Joey.
Reference:
https://home.adelphi.edu/~ni21572/overview.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108778/plotsummary#summaries
Characters in Friends:
Rachel Karen Greene was born to wealthy parents, Leonard and Sandra Greene, who gave her and her two sisters Jill and Amy a rather spoiled upbringing, resulting in them not being able to be independent from their parents financially at first. Rachel originally had a big nose but she later got a nose job. She met Monica Geller for the first time when they were both six years old. They quickly became best friends, remaining exactly like that from then, and the friendship flourished by attending the same high school.
Rachel also soon met Monica’s older brother, Ross, who developed a crush on her which he decided to keep to himself, although years later Rachel admitted she knew about his crush. Ross knew she would have rejected him and she did, as shown in the Pilot when Rachel thought he was just ‘Monica’s geeky older brother.
Rachel’s personality evolves somewhat over the series. Early on, she is portrayed as a spoiled girl. She can often be self-centered, but is often sweet and tries to be a good friend. Later on in the series, especially after she gives birth, she becomes much less self-absorbed.
As a girl used to have people at her beck and call, Rachel admits to Mr. Treeger that she has never taken the trash out. When Treeger yells at her for clogging up the trash chute, which he had unclogged shortly before with a lot of effort, Rachel returns to the apartment in tears and exaggerates the situation. Monica dismisses the exaggerations, saying Rachel always cries. (“The one with the Ballroom Dancing”).
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Rachel_Greene
Chandler Muriel Bing is one of the main characters on the popular sitcom Friends. He is portrayed by Matthew Perry. He is notable for his sarcastic and witty sense of humor.
Throughout most of the series, Chandler is an executive specialized in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration, occupying high-grade positions such as Processing Manager and head of the office. Though he has a high pay, he frequently complains about his dislike of his job, even deciding to quit in Season 9, finding employment as a Junior Copywriter in an advertising agency; this is a job he greatly enjoys, demonstrated by his willingness to take an internship opportunity, even though it means having to start from the very beginning of a new career.
Chandler has been Ross Geller’s best friend since college. He met Ross’ sister Monica Geller and her friend Rachel Greene while celebrating Thanksgiving 1987 at the Geller family residence during his first year at college. He later moved to apartment #19 in New York City, across the hall from Monica and later Rachel.
At some point during this time, Phoebe Buffay moved in with Monica and Kip became Chandler’s roommate. Kip and Monica dated for a while, but later broke up, and could no longer stand to be in the same room as each other. Chandler’s next roommate, Joey Tribbiani moved in, and completed the group of friends. Chandler lived with Joey until season 6, then he moved in with Monica, whom he had been dating for a year.
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Chandler_Bing
Joseph Francis “Joey” Tribbiani Jr., was one of the main characters on Friends (1994–2004) and the title character in the spin-off Joey (2004–2006). He is best known for being a ladies’ man and a rather silly but adorable personality. He was portrayed by Matt LeBlanc.
Joey comes from an Italian-American family of eight children, of which he is the only male. He is from, and presumably born in, Queens. As a child, he was extremely accident prone. In “ The one with Ross’ New Girlfriend”, it’s implied that he was sexually abused as a child by a tailor, but did not realize this until Chandler went to the same place years later. As a child, he had an imaginary friend named Maurice, who was a space cowboy.
He meets most of the friends (with the exception of Rachel) as a result of being Chandler’s roommate. Joey meets Rachel a while later, at Central Perk when she runs out on her planned wedding with Barry.
Joey is a stereotypical and a terrible actor: oversexed, under-educated, and constantly looking for work. He is also ordained as a minister in “ The One With The Truth About London”, and he officiates at both Monica and Chandler’s and Phoebe and Mike’s weddings.
It is revealed in“ The One After ‘I Do” that Joey has a size seven foot (European size 38.5), which he is secretive and defensive about. He also has a soft toy penguin named Huggsy (his “bedtime penguin pal”), which he is very fond of and does not like to share with others. In “The One With Ross and Monica’s Cousin”, it is revealed that as was common with Catholic boys, Joey is circumcised.
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Joey_Tribbiani
Ross Geller, Ph.D. was one of the main characters on Friends (1994–2004). He was portrayed by David Schwimmer. He’s best known for his nerdy personality and very awkward sense of humor, much like Screech from Saved By The Bell, or David from Beverly Hills, 90210.
He was born to Jack and Judy Geller and raised by them on Long Island, New York. He is Monica’s older brother. When Ross was younger, he dressed up as a woman (with his mother’s clothes) and sang, “I am Bea / I drink tea / Won’t you dance around with me?”. When growing up, he attended the same high school as Rachel (as did Monica) where he eventually developed a crush on her and kept it to himself, though Rachel later admitted she knew about his crush, but didn’t return those feelings.
He befriended a fellow student named Will Colbert, who was frequently bullied and teased by Rachel for being fat. Dealing with the fact that she never seemed to notice his feelings for her, in a very immature way, Ross co-founded an “I Hate-Rachel” Club with Will (and an exchange student from Thailand who had no idea what the club was for). To spite her, the two of them spread a rumor about her that everyone in the entire high school (apart from Rachel herself) heard about.
The rumor in question is that she, as Ross put it, “had both male and female reproductive parts” and that, as Will put it, “her parents flipped a coin and decided to raise her as a girl.” It was so wide spread even Chandler heard it in his all-boys high school. However, Rachel unknowingly returned the favor in a way after catching Ross making out with Lincoln High School’s 50 year old librarian. She then spread a rumor regarding this all over the high school (though Ross apparently didn’t know that she’d seen him doing this or that everyone in the high school knew about it until many years later).
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Ross_Geller
•Monica E.[10] Geller is one of the main characters on the popular sitcom Friends (1994–2004), played by Courtenay Cox. Monica was known as the “Mother Hen” of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group’s main gathering places throughout the series.
•Monica was born in 1969. Monica is Ross’ younger sister, and the daughter of Jack and Judy Geller. Monica, like the rest of her family, is Jewish. She had a slightly difficult childhood from Ross, characterized by the bickering which took place between her and her brother (some culminating in memorable events such as the Geller Cup, which took place every Thanksgiving). She also had, and still has, a difficult relationship with her parents (especially with her mother) who unconsciously favor’s Ross over her on various occasions and usually cares about him more than Monica. (Her father did try to fix this by giving her his Porsche in “The One Where Rosita Dies”).
•High school was a difficult time for Monica, who gained a substantial amount of weight and peaked at 255 pounds. She had few friends; her best friend being Rachel Greene. For prom, she even had a date: Roy Gublik. Her first kiss, however, was (by accident) with her brother, Ross.[11] She met Chandler Bing at her parents’ house on Thanksgiving 1987. She initially had a crush on him (and even became a chef because he told her that he liked her macaroni and cheese) until she overheard him referring to her as Ross’ “fat sister.“
• The shock was so great for her that she became determined to lose all her extra weight by the next time he would see her. She accomplished this goal by Thanksgiving 1988.[12] She unintentionally got back at him by dropping a knife and severing one of his toes during a failed attempt to get him naked and seduce him.
•While she is kind, caring and friendly, Monica is perhaps most notorious for her obsessive cleanliness (classifying places by cleanliness, where ‘Monica-clean’ is even cleaner than ‘Health-Department-clean'[14]). She is also known to talk abnormally loudly (such as in “The One With The Apothecary Table”) and for her bossiness and unnatural organizational skills (such as “The One On The Last Night”). Phoebe and Rachel also call her high-maintenance.[15] Aside from being a neat-freak, Monica can also be bossy and somewhat competitive, hating to lose in competitions. Although less so than Chandler, Ross, Rachel or even Phoebe, Monica also possesses a snide and sarcastic wit that is more subtle than her friends’.
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Monica_Geller
•Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan (née Buffay) is one of the main characters on the popular sitcom Friends (1994–2004), portrayed by Lisa Kudrow. She is best known for her bohemian lifestyle, silly wit and guitar playing in Central Perk.
•Phoebe Buffay and her older twin sister, Ursula, are the result of a sexual relationship between Phoebe Abbott, Frank Buffay and Lily Buffay. Phoebe Abbott wasn’t ready to be a mother as she didn’t mean to get pregnant, so Lily and Frank adopted both twins and raised them together. Frank abandoned Lily and the twins soon after and then later married another unknown woman.
•The children’s step-father went to prison and Lily committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning when putting her head in an oven. Phoebe was living on her own homeless on the streets of New York City by the age of 14. When she was 18, she lived in a burnt-out Buick LeSabre. She never attended high school or college, but she met behind a dumpster with a small group of three to learn French. She became fluent in speaking it, as evidenced in “The One Where Joey Speaks French”. She also speaks some Italian, and has a short conversation in Italian with Joey’s grandmother, Nonnie in “The One Where Ross Can’t Flirt”.
•Her language skills are treated somewhat inconsistently. She misunderstands when one of Monica’s assistant introduces himself as a sous-chef, and she does not appear to understand Rachel’s Italian former boyfriend, Paolo (but neither can any of the other five friends).
•Phoebe is a sweet-natured but odd guitar player. Having experienced nothing like a normal, complete childhood, Phoebe is often very dim-witted, sometimes smart and is in some regards still a child at heart. She believed Santa Claus existed, until Joey told her otherwise. Phoebe also shocks some people in the story line with her frankness on occasions that it catches them off guard from her usual self. This straightforwardness is a running gag throughout the Friends series. Phoebe becomes noticeably a little more intelligent during the last two seasons.
Reference:
https://friends.fandom.com/wiki/Phoebe_Buffay
Acting for camera:
It’s good to start with the main genres of on-camera acting:
Acting for film: This is acting for a story that can generally stand alone as a piece in-and-of itself. It’s important to remember it’s intended to be shown on gigantic screens, even though watching films from the comfort of your own computer or TV is becoming more and more popular as technology advances.
Acting for TV: Acting for TV means that you’re acting for a show that’s usually part of an ongoing storyline. TV is having a bit of a renaissance and is of a better, more complex, and varied quality than ever before with the advent of video-streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. So while the format can change—typical 30-minute or one-hour spots to individual series creating film-like episodes (i.e., “Sherlock,” etc.)—there are still two main types of TV filming: single camera and multi-camera.
Single camera is when there is only one camera shooting, and it’s moved to various angles to get different shots. Multi-camera means multiple cameras are all shooting at the same time. The latter is still the popular method for sitcoms and soap operas.
Acting for the web: Web series are an extremely popular storytelling method today. They’re usually shorter in length (in the five- to 30-minute range) and are often part of a series that develops characters over time the same way a TV show would. They’re a great way to gain film experience on a smaller scale or even produce your own work. Web series can also be useful for getting footage for reels and having work online that can be easily viewed and shared by industry professionals.
Acting for commercials: Commercial acting is its own art form. There are the usual TV commercials, but increasingly, there are also commercials for the web. Commercial acting requires the ability to sell a product while also appearing natural and at ease.
Acting for industrials: An industrial is a production for non-broadcast use that’s usually shown in classrooms, stores, dealer showrooms, or corporate offices. Similar to commercial acting, you’re often selling a product/service, but you can also be teaching/explaining something to the audience. Either way, it’s important to still appear natural and easy going.
In theatre/stage acting, your body and voice play a large part in your character’s creation. You, not the camera, are also responsible for directing the audience’s focus onto certain parts of the scene. To this end, you must develop your physicality, vocal range, and endurance to accommodate the demands of the stage and possibly even eight shows a week.
Meanwhile, with on-camera acting, stillness is of great importance. This isn’t to say you don’t use your body and voice, but you must be able to convey your thoughts, feelings, and emotions with minimum movement. What you’re doing with your eyes and your ability to tell your story through them is vital; you need to be able to convey expression and vulnerability through your eyes alone.
Understanding and getting rid of any personal tics you might have that aren’t specific to the character is helpful. Your movements will be magnified exponentially from what an audience member sees in a play versus a movie theatre, so you need to understand the impact each movement has when viewed on film and be sure everything you do is truthful and honest to the utmost degree. A great way to really explore this difference is to perform a favorite monologue the way you normally do for theatre auditions on camera. Then, sit on your hands and tell the same story. You can even try it with different size camera cuts. (Is the shot of your torso or a full-body shot?) Notice the differences in your body, volume, and eyes as you perform the piece with different camera cuts in mind. You’ll be able to start seeing how the same piece translates for both outlets.
Reference: