Actor Jon Cryer has had a long and varied career, starring in cult films like Pretty in Pink and Hot Shots! – The mother of all movies plus a starring role in hit sitcom Two and a Half Men Loss of one of the biggest series roles of the last decades console. As he revealed after the end of TAAHM, he was about to star in Friends.
Jon Cryer auditioned for the role of Chandler in Friends
Jon Cryer was acting in a play in London one fateful day in the early 1990s when he received a call at 3am. Los Angeles-based TV writer Marta Kauffman was on the phone wanting Cryer to audition for her new series, working title Six and One. What followed was reported by Cryer on James Corden’s Late Night Show in 2015. He had until morning to prepare for the Role named Chandler Bing. He then videotaped the audition with a casting director.
So far so good.
But then everything went wrong:
She bagged the tape of me playing Chandler Bing sent it to Los Angeles and it got stuck at customs.
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Sitcom director James Burrows confirmed the story in his book (via PageSix). The Friends producers did not see Cryer’s audition. The role of Chandler Bing went to the lesser-known Matthew Perry, who rose to worldwide fame and was being paid $1 million per episode towards the end of the sitcom.
Lost Friends role broke Jon Cryer’s heart
Speaking to radio host Howard Stern (via Adorocinema), Cryer detailed how he handled that setback:
I think I could have a decent one [Chandler Bing] could be. I don’t think I would have been on Matthew Perry’s level.
And further:
It just breaks my heart. I think the world got Chandler Bing from Matthew Perry, which I think was a brilliant performance. So the heart of the world wasn’t broken. I do.
Jon Cryer hopped from one unsuccessful series to the next throughout the ’90s, but the dry spell ended in 2003 when he debuted the role of Alan Harper in Two and a Half Men. While not as successful as Friends, the Charlie Sheen series brought Cryer a renewed career, two Emmy Awards, and millions of fans.