This Actor Was Supposed to Play Chandler in Friends. For A Long Time He Couldn’t Cope with The Success of Matthew Perry
Chandler in Friends was to be played by another actor, who ultimately turned down the role. After time, he realized his mistake when he saw how successful the TV series and Matthew Perry himself were.
Ever since Matthew Perry heard about Friends, originally titled Friends Like Us, he felt that the role of Chandler was written for him. Unfortunately, although it was a dream character for him, for a long time he believed he couldn't compete for it because he had other commitments. At the time, he already had a role in another sitcom, L.A.X. 2194, a futuristic story about the work of airport baggage handlers, for which he had already shot the pilot episode. So his hands were tied.
Still, he was unable to free himself from the thought of Friends Like Us, especially since his friend Craig Bierko was offered the role of Chandler and another lead in the Best Friends series. Bierko, torn between the two offers, reached out to Perry to ask his advice. Perry, on the other hand, although he did so with pain, after all he wanted to play Chandler himself, advised his friend to compete for the role in Friends Like Us, since in his opinion it was better. To his surprise, Bierko ultimately opted for Best Friends, leaving Chandler free.
The three of us [Bierko, Perry, and Hank Azaria, who wanted to play Joey, but later appeared in Friends in another role – editor's note] read those two scripts that morning, though I already knew Friends Like Us off by heart, and it was clear which one he should take. My heart sank, because I knew I was Chandler, but I also wasn't an a**hole. I was crushed. We both told Craig to do Friends Like Us.
So Bierko let the role go, and Perry was free shortly thereafter, as the pilot of L.A.X. 2194 didn't work out and no one wanted to make the TV series, so he was able to compete for the role of Chandler, which, as is now known, he got. In turn, the TV show, as the actor sensed, was a huge success. In turn, Bierko was jealous of him, Perry said during an interview with Policy & Politics. Perry quoted the words of a friend who spoke to him two years after the sudden break in contact: “I'm sorry that I have not called you in two years. I could not handle that you got rich over famous on a show that I turned down.”
From Perry's words, then, it appears that Bierko didn’t take his friend's success and his own wrong decision lightly, as he set his sights on a TV series that had fallen into oblivion.
