Tom Selleck, 77, reveals he was ‘scared to death’ when he guest-starred as Monica’s boyfriend on Friends: ‘I hadn’t done a sitcom, I was really nervous’
Tom Selleck was ‘scared to death’ when he guest-starred on Friends.
The 77-year-old actor, who has played the fearless police commissioner on Blue Bloods since 2010, admitted in an interview on The Kelly Clarkson Show, that he was terrified about taking the role for a series of appearances as Dr Richard Burke, the short-term boyfriend of Courteney Cox’s character Monica Geller.
The reason, the heartthrob said, was because he had never done a comedy series.
‘The hardest thing is to guest on a show,’ said the actor.
Referring to his trepidation about joining the troupe, that consisted of not only Courteney, but Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry, on the highly rated sitcom in 1995, he explained, ‘I was scared to death.
‘I had done [an episode of] Taxi a long time before, but I hadn’t done a sitcom. And so, I was really nervous.’
However, the journeyman actor went on to explain that his co-star, Courteney, had been a ‘big help’ in welcoming him onto the set.
‘Courteney helped a lot. Courteney’s a big help.’
‘But that group’s an incredible group of friends. They obviously became friends in life as well as on the show. And it shows. It was a wonderful place to work.’
Tom was only supposed to guest star on the sitcom for three episodes and although Richard and Monica eventually broke up, he made a total of nine appearances between 1995 and 2000.
The veteran actor said he uses that experience to try to set others at ease. ‘I try to relax the new actors because that’s really hard to come on a show where everybody’s up to speed.’
The actor wore a Frank Reagan-esque dark three piece blue suit and tie with a lighter blue shirt for his appearance on the talk show. He also sported a salt and pepper goatee beneath his trademark mustache.
When asked about his ‘stache, the actor revealed ‘before Magnum, I worked most of the time without it. Maybe that’s why I did six unsold pilots.’ .