Jane Sibbett has opened up about her efforts in Friends, and stepping into her groundbreaking role after another actress quit.
The 61-year-old is most known for her role as Carol Willick in the sitcom, aka Ross Gellar’s (David Schwimmer) ex-wife who left him after falling in love with Susan Bunch (Jessica Hecht).
Eagle-eyed viewers will know that the character was originally played by Anita Barone in the very first episode, but she quit after the pilot was shot, leaving TV bosses scrambling to find a replacement.
Jane originally auditioned to play Rachel while she was pregnant and, although the role went to Jennifer Aniston, those in charge of casting promised they would keep her in mind for any other positions.
‘When I came home from hospital after giving birth, I got a call asking me to come in the next day and read for Carol,’ she said. ‘Through my baby haze, I agreed.
‘I said I wanted to play her as very loving – partly because of the hormones pumping around my body. They said, “Great, go for it.” Within two days, we were shooting. I didn’t see Anita’s version until much later.’
She made her debut as Carol after the pilot, which aired in 1994, and last appeared in 2001’s The One With The Truth About London, in season seven – she made a brief cameo with Rachel, who accidentally taught her son some pranks.
Replacing another actor was nothing new to the It Takes Two star, who shared that she actually replaced Anita in another role, as well as the sitcom.
‘I eventually met her at a party and thought, “She’s gonna kill me!” But we had a great chat. I thanked her for making the choices she did. She was nothing but gracious,’ she recalled to the Guardian.
‘It’s an exciting challenge. Reinvention is a fun part of being an actor, right? Your director and castmates have already been through it with someone else, so they help. Just leave your ego at the door.
‘It was meant to be a fortnight’s job. I ended up coming back for seven years. Sure, I wasn’t one of the main six but I’m the extra Friend. Maybe the seventh or eighth wheel.’
Reflecting on her character’s legendary screen moments, including her same-sex wedding with Carol and building a family with her wife and her ex-husband, Jane looked back on those scenes with pride.
‘Same-sex weddings were rare on TV in 1996. There was some hullabaloo. Two affiliate stations refused to air it,’ she added. ‘They still trim it out in China. Representation is so integral. To this day, people tell me it opened conversations about their sexuality.’
The One with the Lesbian Wedding aired at the beginning of 1996 and focused on the lovebirds as they prepared to walk down the aisle together.
Although the characters didn’t even share a kiss at the ceremony, the instalment was still banned in two cities in the US – but still raked in more than 31million viewers across the rest of the country.
Jane previously told Metro of the scenes: ‘Maybe we would get a kiss out of the wedding. We weren’t allowed to kiss, and we were disappointed by that.
‘It wasn’t not allowed, it just wasn’t filmed, that segment of the wedding. People were worried that that was going to happen and maybe they pulled back on that a little bit.’
Jane agreed: ‘I must have blocked it out because it was so bizarre. But now they would have them… have sex. It’s such the norm.’
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