So, apparently, David Schwimmer did NOT enjoy filming with Marcel the monkey (Marcel was played by several monkeys) on Friends and talked about it at the reunion special. Now, Marcel’s trainer Mike Morris thinks it is “despicable for [Schwimmer] to still be speaking ill of the monkey.
“Schwimmer was fine with the monkeys for the first couple of episodes and happy to be there. But people would laugh at the monkey and I think he got jealous because it wasn’t him getting the laughs. He seemed to get a little bitter about them being there after that.
“He’s not the kind of actor who can improvise.”
“But it’s kind of bad that he is still talking about the monkey this many years after the show ended. It was one season over 25 years ago, it’s time to let it go.
“It’s almost like he’s still got a monkey on his back. Katie can’t speak for herself so that’s why I’m talking out for her.”
Sounds like a whole lotta Monkey Business! This drama is BANANAS! Do you think Ross is hard to work with, OMG?
What we have is a TRAINER with a problem, not David S. This monkey was obviously “special” to the trainer, and he obviously believes that the monkey deserves the highest accolades. Why wouldn’t David have a definite opinion of working with a monkey?(and I’m so sure David was jealous of the laughs a monkey got.) We don’t have a problem actor or even monkey—-we do have us a neurotic trainer.
The first rule in acting has always been: don’t act with children or animals. I don’t blame Schwimmer at all.
I love how the trainer is telling Schwimmer to “let it go.” It came up, so he discussed it. The trainer could have just shrugged it off and “let it go,” but he didn’t. Which begs the question, why should Schwimmer let it go?
It seems to me the monkey trainer is off his nut a bit, being upset because a human said a wild animal was hard to work with. Then calling him out for speaking ill of the dead about a dead monkey? That’s odd.