By Bill Brioux.
Baseball. Acting. Who could choose?
That was the dilemma facing David Schwimmer and Jonathan Silverman back at Beverly Hills High. "Johnny and I were both into sports," Schwimmer says, "and I think he was torn between being a professional baseball player and being an actor. But we both realized that we had to choose between practice or rehearsal. For some reason, there were more girls at rehearsal, so we both opted for that!"
Today, the former high school pals find themselves at the heart of NBC's powerhouse Thursday-night lineup, Schwimmer as one of the six still-hot "Friends" and Silverman as "The Single Guy."
Silverman remembers that he and "Schwim" hit it off on their very first day of Grade 9 at Beverly Hills High. "The two of us were in four classes together," he says, "so we became fast friends."
And it wasn't long before they discovered that they had more in common than baseball and drama. "We were kind of coming from the same place," Schwimmer says. "He's a nice Jewish guy (too), and I think we had similar values that we were raised with."
However, Silverman "was a much cuter kid than I was," says Schwimmer, who sounds a lot like his self-effacing "Friends" character Ross Geller. "I think my face and body and everything didn't change until I was well into my freshman year of college."
The two even double-dated two best friends. "They were our big high school girlfriends -- the ones who actually lasted for more than a couple of weeks," says Silverman, who adds that both young ladies are married now, "and they want nothing to do with us."
The two young thespians had more luck with the school's drama program, performing in such plays as "Fiddler on the Roof" and "West Side Story," to name two. "We were in opposing gangs in that one," Schwimmer recalls. "He was a Shark, and I was a Jet." The two even competed in the Southern California Shakespeare Festival, which Schwimmer won by portraying three characters from "The Tempest."
Yet it was Silverman who first found commercial success, vaulting into Neil Simon's Broadway production of "Brighton Beach Memoirs" at the tender age of 17, followed by star turns in Simon's "Biloxi Blues" and "Broadway Bound," which co-starred "Seinfeld's" Jason Alexander. "If it wasn't for Mr. Simon," says a grateful Silverman, "I would not have pursued a career in acting."
A little later, following a short stint on NBC's "Gimme a Break," Silverman found film success with "Weekend at Bernie's" (1989) and several other features. "He had much more professional success than I had," says Schwimmer, who used to visit Silverman every six months or so in New York. "He'd done several feature films and Broadway while I was pretty much just pounding the theater ground in Chicago."
In fact, Schwimmer founded a theater company, Lookingglass productions, while still a drama student at Chicago's Northwestern University. (The company's name was inspired by a high school version of "Alice in Wonderland," directed by Andre Gregory and starring Schwimmer as the March Hare and Silverman as the Red King.) "I was envious of his company," says Silverman, who was always too busy to have a college life, "and he'd be envious of any crappy little project I was involved in at the time."
Once both were out in the real world, the two actors found themselves crossing paths on more than one audition. But both insist that the professional competition has never affected their friendship. "We're constantly rooting for each other," Silverman says. "There have been instances that he's beat me and I've beat him, and it's always uncomfortable to be put in that position. But at least we know the other got it, and we feel good about that."
One of their most recent casting clashes occurred the season before Schwimmer landed "Friends." The two went after the same part on "Couples," a pilot developed by the future "Friend's" producers. "It was essentially `Friends' as married people," Silverman explains. "And it came down to the wire between me and David and Jon Cryer." Silverman won the part opposite Helen Slater, only to have ABC pass on the series.
But the real winner was Schwimmer, who was the first actor cast on "Couples" creators' next project, "Friends." "We already knew what a great actor David was," says executive producer Kevin Bright, who calls Schwimmer a terrific physical comedian and credits him with coming up with Ross's endearingly klutzy persona.
The explosive success of the series made Schwimmer an overnight sensation. Requests for interviews, magazine cover shoots and dozens of movie offers came flooding his way. He starred in his first feature, "The Pallbearer," co-starring Barbara Hershey, and has a first-look deal with Miramax Films to star, write and direct.
The attention was way beyond anything Silverman had ever experienced. "I've been pretty lucky," he says. "For 10 years, I've made a handsome living, yet I've been able to keep my anonymity. For Dave, he's been struggling for six, seven years, and now all of a sudden he's just besieged with millions and millions of dollars."
So when "The Single Guy" was set to launch in what Silverman described as "the God slot" behind "Friends," Schwimmer warned his buddy to kiss his anonymity goodbye. "He was already much more used to the idea of being in the public eye," Schwimmer says. "But I was trying to tell him that when you're on a Top-10 television show, you're seen by 20 million to 25 million people a week and the saturation is overwhelming at first. I think more people have seen him in an episode of `The Single Guy' than in all of his films combined."
Which is not always a good thing, as Schwimmer has found. "Just knowing that, at any given time, there are five or six `Hard Copy' or `Extra' camera guys outside my house, or following me for blocks, is a drag, to be honest," says Schwimmer, who took particular offense when a tabloid reporter traveled to New Orleans to hunt down his girlfriend, a law clerk. "There are times when you just want to throw some camera against a wall or something."
That's strong talk from Schwimmer, who, like Silverman, is often described as being "unfailingly polite" or "startlingly unaffected." Both are quick to credit their parents for their level-headedness.
"I guess I was just raised to give others the benefit of the doubt," says Schwimmer, who nevertheless admits that lately it has taken "a lot of energy to maintain a calm and even keel."
Silverman agrees that both are grounded and blessed with terrific childhoods. But he adds that "growing up in Los Angeles was very helpful as well. Seeing the various pitfalls and failures that surround us in everyday life is a great lesson. We just realized early on what's important and what's not."
These days, the two are more in touch than ever. Both have guest-starred on each other's series, the first time they worked together in years. And just to close the circle even tighter, two of their former high school drama teachers wrote "The Single Guy" episode that featured Schwimmer. And the guys haven't hung up their baseball gloves, either. Silverman plays for the Hollywood All -Stars, a group of actors who challenge professional non-baseball teams to charity games. Schwimmer joined Silverman at Yankee stadium one day for a game against the New York Rangers.
"Somewhere on the very first play of the game, David hit a beautiful line drive to left field," Silverman says. "He was rounding first base when his back just went out on him. They had to basically carry him off. They had to shut down filming on the movie he was doing the following two days.
"We haven't played baseball since," Silverman said at the time. "But when he heals, dammit, we will."
1997, Bill Brioux. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.