Friends was undoubtedly an amazing platform for the actors who appeared in the hit series.
But some of those stars haven't had such good luck since the show ended.
Here, we take a look at some of Friends actors who hit rock bottom after the series wrapped.
Long before he smirked his way through eight groan-inducing seasons of Two And A Half Men,
Charlie Sheen played Phoebe Buffay's former lover on Season 2 of Friends.
"I must tell you, you look beautiful tonight."
"What?"
As you're no doubt aware, the Wall Street star is arguably more famous for his personal
problems than for his performances.
His stints in rehab have made him irresistible tabloid fodder, and so have his meltdowns.
"I just have a different constitution, I have a different brain, I have a different heart.
You know, I got tiger blood, man."
The public got one of its first glimpses into Sheen's hectic social life when he testified
in the 1995 trial of former Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss.
As The Los Angeles Times reported,
"Court jurors were shown tape of a sweating, fidgeting Charlie Sheen testifying that he
had ordered call girls from the Hollywood madam at least 27 times."
The newspaper also pointed out that,
"[His] checks [to Fleiss] totaled more than $50,000."
Meanwhile, at least six women have accused Sheen of abuse and/or threats, according to
the Daily Beast.
These include his ex-wives Denise Richards and Brooke Mueller, both of whom claim Sheen
threatened to kill them numerous times during domestic disputes.
Without a doubt, 2011 was Sheen's professional low point.
That's when he was fired from his role on Two and a Half Men following a highly public
downward spiral.
As TMZ reports, the network's letter of termination claimed,
"[He was being fired for] trashing the Plaza Hotel in NYC, coke binges, on-set failures
because of drug fatigue, and diatribes against [show] creator Chuck Lorre."
In response, Sheen told TMZ,
"This is very good news...I never have to put on those silly shirts for as long as this
warlock exists in the terrestrial dimension."
Well, at least it's not a boilerplate soundbite.
Matthew Perry became a star overnight thanks to the incredible popularity of Friends, and
so did his five costars.
But being thrust into the spotlight reportedly took a toll on the actor.
According to Page Six,
"He has a history of stints in rehab in 1997 and 2001.
He once even said that...he doesn’t remember filming multiple seasons of Friends."
As People reports,
"Perry traces his addiction troubles to 1997, when he developed a dependency on Vicodin
following a Jet Ski accident."
But he seems to think his castmates were in the dark about his substance abuse problems.
As he told ABC News in 2013:
"I think I was pretty good at hiding it, you know?"
While filming the 2002 comedy Serving Sara with Elizabeth Hurley, Perry reportedly came
to grips with the fact that he was drinking too much.
As he told Larry King in 2002:
"[I was] just kind of very naive to the true dangers of alcoholism.
So I checked into a treatment center in L.A. and went about the path of desperately changing
my life."
SInce then, the actor has helped found a sober living facility in his old Malibu home for
men struggling with addiction.
30 Rock star Alec Baldwin played Phoebe's boyfriend in two Season 8 episodes of Friends.
"My God, I don't want to forget this moment.
It's like I want to take a mental picture of you all.
Click!"
And while the actor is now happily married to Hilaria Baldwin, his personal life hasn't
always been smooth sailing.
Baldwin was previously married to actress Kim Basinger, until she filed for divorce
in January 2001.
Discussing the split, Basinger's father Don told People,
"Alec has this kind of anger where he reaches down for something that hurts, something that
may have happened a year or two ago, and then abuses Kim with it...But it's when it started
happening in front of [their daughter] Ireland that Kim finally said, 'Well, I'm not going
to put up with that.'"
One of Baldwin's lowest points had to be when he left a notorious voicemail for Ireland,
which was leaked in 2007.
According to TMZ,
"[The actor] unleashed a volcanic tirade of threats and insults on his [then] 11-year-old
daughter, Ireland, calling her a 'thoughtless little pig.'"
In a 2017 interview with Good Morning America, Baldwin said of the incident:
"It's a scab that never heals, 'cause it's being picked at all the time by other people.
And...I think my daughter, that's hurt her in a permanent way."
Incidentally, Ireland cracked a joke about the incident voicemail that same year:
"And my dad and I are in a much better place now.
He would never say something like that.
Because I'm 6'2 and I would kick his ass."
And it seems like Baldwin was still struggling with his rage issues in 2019.
The New York Times reported that,
"[Baldwin] agreed to take an anger management course...to dispose of charges that he assaulted
a man during a dispute over a parking spot in November."
Winona Ryder appeared in a Season 7 episode of Friends that originally aired in April
2001.
"I don't picture your face when I make love to my boyfriend.
Anyway, I gotta go!"
Long before playing Rachel's college friend, she was an '80s and '90s Hollywood darling,
but her career took a nosedive in the early 2000s.
As The New York Times reports in November 2002,
"[Ryder] was found guilty...of grand theft and vandalism for walking off with more than
$5,500 worth of designer goods from a Beverly Hills department store [in December 2001]."
After this highly peculiar incident, Ryder disappeared from the spotlight for a while.
In 2016, she told Porter,
"Psychologically, I must have been at a place where I just wanted to stop.
I won’t get into what happened, but it wasn’t what people think.
And it wasn’t like the crime of the century!”
As for why she took a break from Hollywood, Ryder explained,
"A lot of people had the perception that I just disappeared in the 2000s.
And I did, but only from that world."
In fact, the actress was adamant that the arrest gave her a chance to refocus her life.
She claims:
"It allowed me time that I really needed, where I went back to San Francisco and got
back into things that...I just had other interests, frankly."
"Take me away from all this death!"
Obviously Ryder got back into acting with a vengeance, landing a plum role in the monster
hit Stranger Things in 2015.
When he was still Jennifer Aniston's husband, Brad Pitt made a guest appearance on Season
8 of Friends, in an episode that originally aired in November 2001.
"Did we fool around at Lance Davis's graduation party?"
"You are unbelievable."
"Thank you!"
The couple announced their split in January 2005, and Pitt was subsequently linked to
his Mr. and Mrs. Smith co-star Angelina Jolie.
Pitt and Jolie tied the knot in 2014, and the couple continues to co-parent six children
together.
But Jolie filed for divorce in September 2016, allegedly after an unfortunate incident that
took place on a private jet.
According to People, The L.A. County Department of Children and Family Services and the FBI
investigated Pitt following this incident.
So what happened exactly?
Obviously we'll never know for sure, but a source told People that,
"[Pitt] was drunk, and there was an argument between him and Angelina.
There was a parent-child argument which was not handled in the right way and escalated
more than it should have."
Pitt was cleared of all child abuse allegations in November 2016, and the incident was evidently
something of a wake-up call for Pitt.
He told The New York Times in 2019:
"I had taken things as far as I could take it, so I removed my drinking privileges."
The publication reports that, after Jolie filed for divorce,
"[Pitt] spent a year and a half in Alcoholics Anonymous."
In December 2018, the BBC reported that Jolie and Pitt had reached a custody agreement regarding
their six children.
Reese Witherspoon appeared in two episodes of Friends during season six, playing Rachel
Green's sister.
"Jill?"
"I'm sorry, Rachel."
"Oh, come on.
You really think that's gonna work on me?
I invented that."
In 2013, the actress had a run-in with the law when she and her husband Jim Toth were
pulled over by cops.
As The Guardian reports,
"[Witherspoon] was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct."
Meanwhile,
"Toth was arrested...for driving under the influence of alcohol."
Witherspoon reportedly pulled some pretty hardcore diva moves, and she wouldn't stay
in the car, as ordered by the state trooper.
The Guardian notes that Witherspoon allegedly told the officer:
"Do you know my name?...You're about to find out who I am...You're about to be on national
news."
Witherspoon later lamented the situation in a statement:
"I clearly had one drink too many and I am deeply embarrassed about the things I said.
It was definitely a scary situation and I was frightened for my husband, but that is
no excuse.
I was disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job.
I have nothing but respect for the police and I'm very sorry for my behavior."
Luckily for Witherspoon, the high-profile incident didn't wind up affecting her career.
In fact, she recently teamed up with Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston for the Apple TV+
series The Morning Show.
Sean Penn appeared in two Season Eight episodes of Friends, playing a guy who dated both Phoebe
and her twin sister Ursula.
The actor has been accused of violent behavior several times over the years.
In 1985, Penn allegedly attacked two journalists with a rock after they tried photographing
him with his then-fiancée Madonna.
One of the journalists told the Los Angeles Times:
"He went for us like a madman.
He just went for us straight off.
He went berserk, like a whirlwind."
The Los Angeles Times also reported that
"[Penn was sentenced] to sixty days in County Jail for reckless driving and for punching
an extra on the set [of Colors in 1987]."
In 2009, Penn was filmed kicking a photographer, allegedly breaking his camera.
And although Madonna has since defended her ex-husband and said that he never abused her,
a slew of newspaper articles claim otherwise.
According to The Guardian, the singer shared testimony in a defamation lawsuit filed by
Penn in 2015, saying:
"While we certainly had more than one heated argument during our marriage, Sean has never
struck me, 'tied me up' or physically assaulted me, and any report to the contrary is completely
outrageous, malicious, reckless and false."
Former teen heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. famously played the "manny" hired by Rachel
and Ross in Season 9, Episode 6 of Friends.
"I really do understand how hard it's got to be to leave your child with another person."
When the actor secured a role in 24 back in 2010, it seemed like he was making a welcome
return to primetime TV.
But his experience on the show clearly wasn't a good one.
Prinze Jr. told ABC News:
"Kiefer [Sutherland] was the most unprofessional dude in the world.
That's not me talking trash, I'd say it to his face, I think everyone that's worked with
him has said that."
In fact, Prinze Jr. had such a terrible time on the show, he even admitted,
"I just wanted to quit the business after that.
So, I just sort of stopped."
While his disappearance from the spotlight was partly self-imposed, the actor also faced
some personal challenges.
In 2014, E! News reported in 2014 that
"[The actor was] recovering from spine surgery...Doctors made an incision on his neck and he received
stitches and a brace, which he called a Robo-Neck."
Well, he certainly bounced back from all these setbacks.
In 2016, he released a cookbook called Back to the Kitchen.
The blurb gives you some idea of what to expect within its pages:
"Freddie teaches fans to cook his mainstays, the recipes that he makes on even the busiest
weeknights, as well as more luxurious date night meals."
"There's one recipe in there called The Stalker Pasta which, is a dish I made for an actress
and she stalked me for two years!"
Meanwhile, according to GQ,
"[Prinze Jr.] keeps busy with voice acting (as a key player in the Star Wars universe)."
"Hi, I'm Freddie Prince Jr. and I'm the voice of Kanan on Star Wars Rebels."
Award-winning performer Gary Oldman guest-starred on Friends in Season 7, as an actor working
with Joey.
"Nice to meet you, Joey."
"I can't believe this.
This is incredible.
I mean, you just won an Oscar."
"No I didn't."
The actor was accused of domestic abuse by his ex-wife Donya Fiorentino, with whom he
shares two children.
According to the New York Daily News, Fiorentino alleged in court papers:
"I tried to dial 911.
Gary grabbed the phone receiver from my hand, and hit me in the face with the telephone
receiver three or four times.
Both of the children were crying."
In 2018, she emotionally told the Mail on Sunday:
"He stole my children and ruined my life...I would like Gary to stand up and take responsibility
for his actions.
Will he?
Who knows?
He has always denied everything."
But back in 2003, Oldman was awarded full custody of the couple's two sons.
The Daily Mail reported that,
"A judge found Oldman to be the better parent and reduced Fiorentino's visiting rights."
Gulliver Oldman, pictured here to the far left, is one of the couple's sons.
He's since come forward to defend his father, issuing a statement in 2018 that read:
"I was there at the time of the 'incident,' so I'd like to make this radiantly clear:
it didn't happen.
Anyone who says it did is lying."
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