Helen Baxendale was put off fame when she starred in 'Friends.'

Helen Baxendale recalls what it was like to star in Friends

Helen Baxendale recalls what it was like to star in Friends

The 51-year-old actress took on the recurring role of Emily Waltham - the second wife of established character Ross Geller - during the hugely popular sitcom's fourth and fifth seasons appearing alongside David Schwimmer (Ross), Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow.

After experiencing the level of celebrity that the six main cast members had she decided she "didn't really want" that Hollywood life because they had no anonymity or freedom.

She said: "I think I saw where all that eventually takes you. Not that I was heading there at all. But I saw those people in 'Friends', for example, and thought, 'I don’t think that life is really what I want.' They were hounded. They weren’t able to walk into a supermarket and buy something."

The 'Cold Feet' star - who was written out of the 1990s sitcom earlier than expected when she discovered that she and partner David L. Williams were expecting their first child together - went on to express her surprise that she had briefly experienced the same level of fame as co-stars despite only being on the show for a short time.

In an interview with The Independent, she said: "I didn’t think what I was doing warranted [all the attention]. It wasn’t about me, it was about this ... this thing. This programme that I happened to be in for a few episodes. The whole thing was bonkers!"

Helen - who has actress daughter Nell, 23, as well as sons Eric, 20, and Vincent,15, with film director David - went on to play roles in dramas such as as 'An Unsuitable Job for a Woman' and more recently starred in BBC sitcom 'Cuckoo' for almost a decade but claimed that it takes a certain kind of "character" to manage the fame brought on by 'Friends.'

She said: "I think you need a certain character to be able to deal with it."

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