David Schwimmer hated working with a monkey on 'Friends'.

David Schwimmer

David Schwimmer

The 54-year-old actor's alter ego Ross Geller had a pet capuchin named Marcel in season one and though the cute creature was a hit with viewers, the star never enjoyed sharing scenes with him because he would "mess up the timing" and cause retakes to be needed.

During the 'Friends' reunion special, the cast were asked if there was anything they disliked about the show and David said bluntly: "Yes. The monkey."

While co-star Jennifer Aniston insisted she "loved" the creature, David insisted there were valid reasons for his unhappiness.

He said: "That's because you didn't have to touch it.

"I want to say, I love animals. I'm an animal lover, but here's my problem....

"The monkey would mess up scenes and when it didn't do its job right, we would have to go again over and over.

"The monkey didn't hit its mark, I'm sorry.

"That combined with the trainer giving the monkey live grubs to eat. He would eat in and I would have monkey grub hands all over my face.

"It was time to.... it was time for Marcel to f**k off!"

Courteney Cox also admitted she wasn't a fan, and nor was Matthew Perry.

While David was the first to sign up for the show, creators Martha Kaufmann and David Crane admitted they had to "beg" him to play Ross, having written the character with him in mind.

Speaking on the hotly-anticipated reunion show, Martha said: "We had seen David for another role in a different show, and remembered him, so when we started creating 'Friends' [he] was in our minds. But we had to send him gift baskets [to convince him]!"

David added: "He had quit TV. He’d had a miserable experience on another show so he moved back to Chicago to just do theatre. We had to beg him and beseech him and say we wrote the part for him! We assured him this was going to be different from his other experience."

Tagged in