‘Friends’ Would Have Been Completely Different If This ‘Two & A Half Men’ Star Would Have Bagged Chandler Bing’s Role ( Photo Credit – Show Still )
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When we talk about iconic American sitcoms, Friends is the one that always crosses our minds. The show featured a story of six friends as they embarked upon an adventurous life filled with laughter and emotions. One of the most beloved characters from the show was undoubtedly Chandler Bing, played by Matthew Perry, but it would not have been the same if Jon Cryer’s audition had reached the casting team.
Friends began in 1994 with Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. The six actors received immense fame for bringing their respective characters to life and how.
However, during the casting of the show, the makers had a whole other person in mind to play Chandler Bing, and it was none other than Two & A Half Men star Jon Cryer. In 2015, Cryer appeared on The Late Late Show with James Corden and recalled when he auditioned for Chandler’s part in Friends.
During the show, the host asked Jon Cryer about missing out a huge job in his career to which the actor said, “Can we think about that and talk about that at length.” Jon Cryer continued, “I was working in a play in London and got a call from a someone in Los Angeles at 3:00 am, and it was Marta Kauffman [Friends executive producer], and she had a script called ‘Six of One.’ I thought, ‘This sounds interesting,’ and she said, ‘the part I want you for is named Chandler Bing.’”
Cryer further jokes, “I said, ‘I’m sorry, that just sounds stupid. Forget it.” Well, that did not happen, as he further clarified, “I didn’t say that.” What happened was Cryer agreed to audition for a casting director who was in the UK the next morning. The actor added, “I went in. I did my best… she packaged up the tape of me doing my best Chandler Bing, sent it to LA, and it got stuck in customs.” After reaching Los Angeles, Cryer found out that the tape never made it to the network executives in the US, and the rest is history.
Well, Cryer did land a part in another iconic sitcom, Two & A Half Men, which ran for a good twelve years. For the unversed, Matthew Perry was also working on a different project with Fox at the time he was spotted for the role. As a result, he got released from the project and scripted history with his role in Friends.
