Jean-Claude Van Damme Felt ‘Strange’ on ‘Friends’ Alongside Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox


Jean-Claude Van Damme gets scared when he thinks about how Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox fought over him in Friends.

In an interview that came out last week in the New York Post, the Belgian actor, martial artist, and director talked about his appearance as himself in the 1996 Friends episode “The One After the Superbowl: Part 2.”

“My acting is so bad. I look so like a ham. Like, ‘Hey, girls.’… It’s like, I’m ashamed of myself.”

In the episode, Monica (Cox) and Rachel (Aniston) see the Muscles from Brussels while filming a movie in New York, the home city of the six friends. They fall in love with him and spend the whole episode fighting over who gets to date him.

“So then I was on the set, and those girls, they go and they kiss me and they kiss me on the lips. I didn’t know what to do, how to do… It was strange,” he said, adding, “[Anniston and Cox] were nice.”

The 63-year-old fight director said he “didn’t know much about the show,” but he was “glad” to “see those two beautiful girls” and proud to be on “the hottest show in the world right now.”

Friends, with Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry, left a lasting cultural impact that went beyond its 10-season run from 1994 to 2004.

It is said that Matthew Perry, who played the popular Chandler Bing, drowned and died on Saturday night.