‘Friends’ actor Olivia Williams describes “harrowing” experience as guest star

Olivia Williams has opened up about her brief experience on Friends.

The British actor, now aged 55, had a guest role on the ’90s sitcom in the show’s fourth season. She played a friend and bridesmaid of Emily, who was played by Helen Baxendale.

Williams can be seen in scenes from the season four finale of the hit show, in which the main cast travel to London for the wedding of Ross and Emily. The episode contains a famous scene in which Ross accidentally says Rachel’s name at the altar instead of Emily’s.

Speaking to The Independent about her time on Friends, Williams gave more details of what she had previously described as a “harrowing” time.

One example included the treatment of a certain actor on set. “Well, just as an example, I was taken to the studio in a shared car with a wonderful actress whose character, I think, was called ‘Old Woman’,” she began, before describing the actor as “distinguished” and “very good”.

“At one point, a producer – who shall remain nameless – just yelled at her: ‘You’re not funny!’ And she didn’t come back the next day. So that was alarming,” she explained.

The Sixth Sense actor also opened up about the process of preparing to play her role of Felicity in the Emmy-winning show: “Oh and Friends was a brand, and you had to fit the brand.”

She elaborated: “You go into hair and make-up and you’re told, ‘There’s a look here, this is what we do.’ And that involved, essentially, plucking off all of your eyebrows.”

Williams added that she begged the crew not to significantly change her look: “Literally, ‘please don’t take my eyebrows off, I might need them in another job!’,” she explained.

“But yes, that’s the sense in which it was harrowing.”

Williams, who portrayed Camilla Parker-Bowles in the most recent seasons of The Crown, is set to play Tula Harkonnen in the upcoming Max series, Dune: Prophecy.

The series is set in the Dune universe created in the 1965 novel by Frank Herbert, and takes place approximately 10,000 years before the events of Dune. It serves as a prequel to Denis Villeneuve’s 2021 film starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya.