David Schwimmer has revealed his starring role in “Friends” left him a recluse and struggling to cope with fame.
The sitcom actor, 49, who has since reinvented himself as a director and TV star, opened up about the detrimental effects the iconic show had on his life.
During an emotional interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Schwimmer confessed: “As an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, so I used to walk around with my head up, really engaged and watching people.
“The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite: it made me want to hide under a baseball cap and not be seen.
“And I realized after a while that I was no longer watching people; I was trying to hide.
“So I was trying to figure out: How do I be an actor in this new world, in this new situation? How do I do my job? That was tricky.”
Discussing the impact his sudden rise to fame had on his personal life, David revealed it took years to “adjust” to being a huge star.
He added: “It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to adjust to and become comfortable with.”
Schwimmer shot to fame in 1994 when NBC’s “Friends” first hit TV screens.
He starred alongside Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry, and the group was propelled to global recognition.
After 10 seasons of the show, the final episode in 2004, titled “The Last One,” pulled in a record-breaking 52 million viewers across America.
