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Peacemaker star Frank Grillo was almost cast as Joey in Friends before he even began his acting career: "They called me back…and then they called me back again"
Peacemaker star Frank Grillo says he was almost cast as Joey Tribbiani in Friends before his acting career even began.
On the Project Big Screen podcast, Grillo explained that he accompanied his friend to an audition for the show, only for the casting director to hand him the sides and have him read, too.
"The casting director came out. It was at CBS Radford in Los Angeles. And she goes, 'Are you next?' I go, 'Oh no, I just drove him," He explained. "She goes, 'You an actor?' I said, 'Um, yeah,' I go and she goes, 'Take those sides and come in in like five minutes.' And I did. And they called me back. And then they called me back again. I didn't have an agent or anything. And they called me back a third time. And then I went to do [a screen test]. And I tested for it. And at that point, I thought, 'This is easy. I'm going to be an actor."
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Grillo laments that even though he didn't get the role, it "really sparked a real interest in being more serious about pursuing it." You can check out the interview below around the 1:30 mark.
The role of Joey ultimately went to Matt LeBlanc, though it's been reported for quite some time that creators David Crane and Martha Hoffman didn't even want to cast him...but were told by NBC to do so. Though he wasn't a star at the time, LeBlanc was a recurring character on the hit sitcom Married with Children, and starred in both of the show's failed spinoffs.
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Friends wasn't Grillo's first audition, as he had booked his first role the year prior (circa 1991) in the musical drama The Mambo Kings, and would go on to book his first leading role on the soap opera Guiding Light in 1993. He would go on to star in an array of crime dramas and rom-coms before starring in season one of Prison Break and acting alongside Collin Farrell and Edward Norton in the crime thriller Pride and Glory.
Grillo is currently starring as Rick Flag Sr. in Peacemaker season 2, after making his first official DCU appearance in Creature Commandos, before having a brief role in Superman.
Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ based in New York City. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.
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