Many actors have had “what if” moments in their lives, and Friends star David Schwimmer has been recalling one of the biggest “brutal” decisions that he made about his career – turning down a role in the 1997 hit Men In Black. The Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones movie turned Smith into a movie star, and Schwimmer is fully aware that it could have helped his own movie star aspirations.
Schwimmer is best known for his role as Ross Geller in the popular ‘90s sitcom, and, in fact, almost all of his most remembered appearances have been on TV. However, he has made appearances in many movies, such as The Pallbearer, Big Nothing, and the Madagascar franchise. But there is a chance he could have had many more big titles to his name if he had chosen to take on a role offered to him in Men in Black.
During an appearance on the Origins with Cush Jumbo podcast, Schwimmer recalled having to make the choice between appearing alongside Smith and Jones on the big screen, or following his own path to make his directorial debut with the 1998 movie Since You’ve Been Gone. He explained:
“All my best friends in the world in my theater company quit their jobs so they could be in [Since You’ve Been Gone] over the summer, which was going to be a six-week shoot in Chicago. It was a direct conflict with — this was my summer window from Friends, I had a four-month hiatus, and Men in Black was going to shoot exactly when I was going to direct this film with my company.”
As Schwimmer noted, he is well aware that taking a role in that movie could have given his whole career a new path.
“Of course it was an amazing opportunity. I mean, you have to follow your gut, you have to follow your heart. And look, I mean I’m really aware — whatever, 20 years later, maybe more — that would have made me, I think, a movie star. If you look at the success of that film and that franchise, I would — my career might have taken a very different trajectory.”
David Schwimmer Will Always Be “TV Famous”
While Schwimmer has found success providing a voice for Melman the giraffe in the Madagascar movies, his career on the big screen has been littered with many minor successes and outright failures. However, being the star of one of the biggest sitcoms in TV history has given him a place in the industry that makes it hard for him to see his career as anything other than successful.
Outside his role as Geller, Schwimmer gained high praise for his role in the Steven Spielberg-produced war series Band of Brothers, and playing O.J. Simpson’s lawyer Robert Kardashian in the miniseries The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story. He also led the Peacock original comedy series Intelligence, which scored highly with audiences across its two seasons and 2023 special. The actor will next be seen in the second season of Disney+ anthology series Goosebumps, playing the father of teenage siblings who find themselves in the middle of a chilling mystery from the pages of R.L. Stine.