Leah Remini portrayed Carrie Heffernan in the sitcom King of Queens for almost 9 years. She plays the paralegal and wife of Doug, a trucking driver. The couple goes about their everyday lives in the working-class district of New York that gives them the title. It lives with Doug’s father Arthur (Jerry Stiller).
King of Queens has been one of the most popular sitcoms since it started in 1998 and Leah Remini became world famous for her role. Four years earlier, Remini almost made her breakthrough in an even bigger sitcom: Friends.
Which role did Leah Remini lose – and to whom?
In her book Troublemaker: How I Survived Hollywood and Scientology *, Remini tells the story of how she auditioned for Friends – and how she ultimately lost the role to her unbeatable competitor.
Remini wanted to play Monica Geller, the order-mad professional chef and sister of Ross Geller (David Schwimmer). Remini even made it to the final round of auditions, being as close as she could get, reports The Things . It was a decision between her and another actress: a certain Courteney Cox.
Remini auditioned first and the reaction was great, she had a good feeling. As she exited the building she saw her last competitor in the parking lot – she knew immediately that it was over. Courteney Cox eventually nabbed the role and, along with Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc, formed the six-member Friends group that meets in New York for almost 10 years.
Leah Remini lost $90 million on Friends
Friends became so successful that the cast members were eventually able to demand horrendous salaries. Cox is expected to receive up to $1 million per episode have. In total, she probably earned $90 million from the series. But Leah Remini wasn’t starving with her King of Queens role: her salary peaked at $400,000 per episode.
King of Queens fans should be happy with this ending to the story anyway. Because if Remini had actually gotten the role of Monica, King of Queens would look completely different today. On The Howard Stern Show, Remini made peace with the Friends loss: “King of Queens was my role, that was my series. It was supposed to happen that way. Then you look back [auf Friends] and think, ‘It shouldn’t be like this.'”
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