The director of the Friends Reunion specially addressed Paul and Cole’s absence and explained why they weren’t seen in the special.
The highly anticipated reunion of the year- Friends Reunion streamed online on 27th May globally, which featured the main cast along with recurring members including Maggie Wheeler (Janice), Larry Hankin (Mr. Heckles), Elliot Gould and Christina Pickles (Jack and Judy Geller) etc.
Other than the star cast, other singers and celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, James Cordon, Kit Harington, Mindy Kaling also appeared in the reunion.
However, the major missing for fans were Paul Rudd aka Mike Hannigan and Cole Sprouse aka Ben Geller.
Ben Winston, the director of the special- Friends Reunion stated that absence of Paul Rudd and Cole Sprouse and few others was due to the COVID restrictions and time constraints. He clarified that a few characters couldn’t make it due to the combination of said reasons.
Winston told, “Well, we couldn’t have everybody on, because it’s only an hour and 45 minutes. And you’ve got to pay attention – the main nub of the show has got to be about the six cast members.” He added, “So you can’t have too many cameos because, of course there were hundreds of amazing people who were in Friends over the years.”
“Sadly, we couldn’t get everybody on board”, said Winston. He also cleared that his team did not fail to reach out to specific stars.
Ben Winston continued, “You know, we did invite some people who weren’t able to make it. It’s a complicated time to be making television now because, you know, some people couldn’t fly internationally, some people were on other TV or film shoots, some people are in bubbles of stuff.”
“I think during a pandemic, it’s really hard to get everybody where you want to be. And the other thing, of course, is we have no flexibility,” he added. “It was one night that those six [members] were available. The timing of it was incredibly difficult. So, you know, if you weren’t available on the seventh of April at 8 p.m., then, sadly, they weren’t able to be part of it.”
