Mark Ruffalo admits to David Schwimmer that he never watched 'Friends'

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Mark Ruffalo comes clean to David Schwimmer that he never watched 'Friends'

By Megan Armstrong | Last updated 4/5/21

David Schwimmer made his The Graham Norton Show debut last week before jetting off to Los Angeles to film the long-awaited HBO Max Friends reunion special, and Mark Ruffalo revealed that he has a lot of catching up to do before he can get excited about the six core cast members reuniting.

Egged on by Norton, Ruffalo admitted to Schwimmer that he has only "seen a lot of parts" of Friends rather than rabidly consuming the iconic series like most of the world. "It's not you," Ruffalo said to Schwimmer, who didn't seem all that bothered. "It's me. I'm the only one in this audience."

Tamsin Greig swooped in to Ruffalo's rescue: "OK, I have an admission to make. When I was the sent the script of Episodes, and I read the first episode of Episodes, and it said, 'Who's gonna be in your show? Matt LeBlanc,' I did have to Google him. So, we're in it together." (Episodes was a 2011-17 series centered around LeBlanc as himself, poking fun at the struggle to maintain his career post-Friends).

Schwimmer jested that he would buy a DVD set for both of them, and when Norton complimented him on Friends's legacy, the 54-year-old had another playful jab for Ruffalo: "Yeah, it's very similar to being a superhero in some of the biggest movies in the world. No, I'm a fan of all the movies. All of them." (Ruffalo has portrayed Bruce Banner/The Hulk in five films since debuting as the character in 2012's The Avengers.)

Friends debuted in 1994 and ran for 10 seasons through 2004. It was a pop culture staple at the time, especially when all six negotiated to earn $1 million per episode for the final two seasons, but the resurgence has been even stronger since a new generation was introduced to Ross Geller (Schwimmer), Joey Tribbiani (LeBlanc), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) through Netflix.

HBO Max gained streaming rights to Friends at the top of 2020, and a reunion special was announced that February. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused several production delays, but the hype is just as strong.

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