Olivia Williams Says Guest Starring On ‘Friends’ Was “Harrowing” & “Alarming”

The Crown, The Sixth Sense and The Father actress Olivia Williams has opened up about the “harrowing” time she spent on the set of Friends back in 1998. Williams appeared as a bridesmaid in the two-part season 4 finale of the iconic series, “The One with Ross’ Wedding.”

Recently queried about previous remarks she’d made regarding her stint on the show, Williams told The Independent“Well, just as an example, I was taken to the studio in a shared car with a wonderful actress whose character, I think, was called ‘Old Woman.’” The actor, whose name Williams did not recall, was “distinguished” and “very good,” but at one point, “a producer – who shall remain nameless – just yelled at her: ‘You’re not funny!’ And she didn’t come back the next day. So that was alarming.”

Williams also told the newspaper, “Friends was a brand, and you had to fit the brand. You go into hair and make-up and you’re told, ‘There’s a look here, this is what we do.’ And that involved, essentially, plucking off all of your eyebrows.” She added that she begged, “Please don’t take my eyebrows off, I might need them in another job… That’s the sense in which it was harrowing.”

Williams recently appeared in sci-fi romance Another End which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in February. She is next up in Max series Dune: The Prophecy which is set within the mystical world of Duneand 10,000 years before the ascension of Paul Atreides. It follows the Harkonnen Sisters as they combat forces that threaten the future of humankind, and establish the fabled sect known as the Bene Gesserit. Williams will play Tula Harkonnen.