‘Friends’ guest star recalls ‘alarming’ and ‘harrowing’ movie experience

Olivia Williams has given critically acclaimed performances in “Rushmore,” “The Sixth Sense,” and “An Education.” She recently appeared as Camilla Parker Bowles in the final two seasons of Netflix’s hit drama series ‘The Crown’. But for many people, the British actor will always be Felicity from the season finale of “Friends.” Williams once called the guest role on the NBC sitcom “poignant,” and recently did so opened to The Independent about the reasons why it wasn’t the best experience in a recent interview.

“Gee. Well, to give an example, I was taken to the studio in a shared car with a wonderful actress whose character, I think, was called ‘Old Woman,’” Williams said, noting that this actor “ distinguished’ and ‘very good’ but “at one point a producer – who shall remain nameless – shouted at her: ‘You’re not funny!’ And the next day she didn’t come back. So that was alarming.”

“Oh, and ‘Friends’ was a brand, and you had to fit the brand,” Williams added. “You go into hair and makeup and you’re told, ‘Here’s a look, this is what we do.’ And that essentially meant plucking all your eyebrows. Literally [I was begging], ‘Please don’t take off my eyebrows, I might need them for another job!’ But yes, in that sense it was poignant.”

Variety has contacted Warner Bros. Discovery for comment.

Williams appeared as Felicity in “The One With Ross’s Wedding,” the two-part season finale of Season 4 of “Friends.” The episode revolves around the main characters traveling to London for Ross’ wedding to Emily. The event infamously ends when Ross accidentally says Rachel’s name during his vows. Williams’ Felicity is one of Emily’s bridesmaids and catches Joey’s eye.

“Maybe if I kept my mouth shut more, I’d have a lot more work to do,” Williams joked The independent. “Maybe I’m on the blacklist of socialist actors, I don’t know…”

If The independent noted, “Loving Mom has never been her strong suit. This is an actor who once called the American television industry “a combined piranha pit and cesspool.” Who once used “cucumber-in-the-butt” as an adjective to describe one of her characters. Who once said she got along well with Arnold Schwarzenegger — her co-star in a serial killer thriller called “Sabotage” — because of her “advantage or disadvantage of not having big breasts.” She later begged an interviewer not to watch it.

Williams last appeared on the big screen in “Another End,” which had its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year. She is also attached to star in “Dune: The Sisterhood,” a television expansion of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” franchise that will stream on Max. Williams plays Tula Harkonnen.

Set in the world of “Dune,” 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides, the series follows the Harkonnen sisters as they battle forces that threaten the future of humanity, and establish the legendary cult known as the Bene Gesserit. The prequel is based on the novel “Sisterhood of Dune” by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.