Former Friends actress Alexandra Holden has recalled a rather alarming note she was given ahead of auditioning for the show.
Alexandra appeared in multiple episodes of the show’s sixth series as Elizabeth, a student of Ross Geller’s who he eventually ends up dating for a brief period.
Reflecting on her time on the show in an interview with The Guardian, for which the newspaper spoke to a number of actors who played minor characters in Friends, Alexandra recalled some guidance she was given ahead of her audition, which she says sent her “into a tailspin”.
“I got called in to do a ‘chemistry read’ with David Schwimmer,” she told the newspaper.
“It was terrifying because the producers told me to come in looking ‘as hot as possible’. I didn’t know what to do with that information. It sent me into a tailspin.”
Noting she “stayed up all night trying to figure out what to wear”, Alexandra added: “Now that I’m older, I wouldn’t be happy getting that message.”
Alexandra was 22 when the sixth series of Friends began airing in the US in 1999.
Despite its final episode airing 15 years ago, it was recently revealed that Friends is still the number one favourite show among young TV watchers.
The sitcom, which originally ran from 1994 to 2004, garnered a brand new following when it debuted on Netflix at the beginning of last year, though many new viewers noted that some of the humour that was acceptable in the 1990s would no longer fly in the 21st century.
This was also addressed in The Guardian’s reflective piece, with guest star Aisha Tyler, who played Ross’ later girlfriend Charlie, saying: “People of colour were always aware of [the lack of diversity]... the fact of the matter was, it was a show set in Manhattan that was almost entirely Caucasian. It was an unrealistic representation of what the real world looked like.”