One of my guilty pleasures in life is rewatching the TV show Friends. I wish I could rewatch it with the commercials that would have accompanied it back when it aired. One of the storylines still bothers me though: the Monica-Richard affair. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Tom Sellek as much as the next guy, but hear me out on this one.
When casting someone for the role of a 60 year old man dating their friends’ 20-something-year-old daughter, I think they should stick to a more accurate representation: a deeply insecure, creepy guy with obvious predatory tendencies – not some self-assured, confident mustache man. They should cast someone without the heartthrob looks and undeniable sex appeal that Tom Sellek has. Someone who can pull off coming across as downright weird. If I could remake this storyline of Friends, my top casting picks would be:
- Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs
- Dennis Hoffman
- Grandpa Joe from Willie Wonka
- Danny Devito
- David Spade as Joe Dirt
- Danny McBride
- Phillip Seymor Hoffman (one of my all-time faves!)
- Billy Crystal
I admire and respect all of these actors and think that they could pull off a much more interesting ‘love story’ between characters Monica and Richard in a way that is more representative of large age-gap relationships. I know I’ll catch flack for this, but I just think that although Friends was intended to be lighthearted, it would have been such an interesting and dark turn to incorporate a different dynamic to Monica’s quest for true love.
I guess we’ll never know.