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What would “Friends” have looked like with a different Chandler Bing? If not for a fateful mail mix-up, he may have worn a lot more blazers and bolo ties. In a 2015 interview on “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” veteran performer –- and erstwhile Duckie Dale -– Jon Cryer once revealed that he was almost in the mix for the part of Chandler. “I was doing a play in London and I got a call at 3 a.m. from somebody in Los Angeles,” Cryer told the host. The woman on the other end of the line was “Friends” co-creator Marta Kaufman, and she had a proposition for Cryer.
“She had this great script called ‘Six of One,'” the “Pretty in Pink” star recalled, referencing the original title of “Friends.” Cryer explained that he thought the project sounded interesting, and Kaufman let him know she wanted him to check out the role of Chandler. “I had to audition the next morning with the casting director who was in the U.K.,” the actor explained, which meant he had just seven hours to prepare for the part -– and virtually no time to sleep. Nevertheless, he made it to the audition, which the casting director recorded.
But unlike other long-lost audition tapes from future celebrities that have resurfaced over the years, you likely won’t get to see Cryer’s Chandler anytime soon. That’s because after doing his scene reading, Cryer said that the casting director “packaged up the tape of me doing my best Chandler Bing, sent it to Los Angeles, and it got stuck in customs.”
Jon Cryer’s audition tape never made it to Hollywood
Marta Kaufman and “Friends” co-creator David Crane never saw the tape, and Jon Cryer, who already had some great roles under his belt, went on to win two Emmys for a very different sitcom with CBS’s “Two-and-a-Half Men.” That part didn’t arrive until 2003, though, and Cryer spent the majority of the “Friends” run working in theater and appearing in now-forgotten films and one-season shows.
Still, Cryer conceded, “It’s all for the best.” Since “Two-and-a-Half Men” ended its tumultuous but wildly successful run, Cryer has appeared in the films “Big Time Adolescence” and “18 ½,” but has continued to do his most popular work on TV. He played supervillain Lex Luthor across five different Arrowverse shows, and most recently starred in and executive produced the NBC sitcom “Extended Family.”
The list of potential Chandlers doesn’t stop at Cryer, either. According to Gary Susman, Jeannine Dillon, and Bryan Cairns’ book “Friends Forever,” future “UnREAL” actor Craig Bierko turned down the part, and a pre-Marvel (and pre-“Swingers,” for that matter) Jon Favreau also came close to the role. Matthew Perry had actually coached Bierko ahead of his audition, and when the late actor’s own work schedule cleared, everything finally clicked into place. Perry took the part, and Chandler quickly became the self-deprecating heart of the show. The rest is sitcom history.
