Actor David Schwimmer says that he struggled with his overnight fame once “Friends” became a huge hit after debuting in 1994.
The 49-year-old actor, who recently made his return to TV in “American Crime Story: The People v O.J. Simpson” nearly 12 years after “Friends” wrapped, said the adjustment to celebrity status was very hard for him, said The Hollywood Reporter.
“It was pretty jarring and it messed with my relationship to other people in a way that took years, I think, for me to kind of adjust to and become comfortable with.
“As an actor, the way I was trained, my job was to observe life and to observe other people, and so I used to walk around with my head up, and really engaged and watching people,” Schwimmer said.
The actor said he felt life hiding after becoming a star.
“The effect of celebrity was the absolute opposite. It made me want to hide under a baseball cap, 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? So that was tricky,” he added.
The NBC sitcom also launched the careers of his costars, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow.
