Friend's David Schwimmer Is Apparently Feuding With Marcel the Monkey and his Trainer

Move over, Bette Davis and Joan Crawford – it seems yet another celebrity feud has taken Hollywood by storm, none other than a decidedly 90's tale of man vs. capuchins and capuchin trainer – the absolutely bananas beef between Friends star David Schwimmer and Marcel the Monkey.

Since his early days starring on the hit NBC sitcom, Schwimmer has never minced words when discussing his disdain for the animal actor who played his on-screen pet throughout the show's first season. "I hate the monkey," he told Entertainment Weekly back in 1995. "The trainers won't let me bond with it. They're really, really possessive. It's like, 'Land on your marks, do your job, don't touch or bond with the monkey.' It's a bummer."

Despite more than 25 years elapsing since appearing on screen with his primate co-star, Schwimmer doubled down on these sentiments during the Friends reunion earlier this year. “Here is my problem: The monkey, obviously, was trained,” Schwimmer recalled. “It had to hit its mark and do its thing right at the perfect time. What inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up because the monkey didn't do its job right. So we would have to reset, we'd have to go again, because the monkey didn't get it right," he continued adding by the end of the season, he felt "it was time for Marcel to f--- off."

Yet after decades of slander, Mike Morris, the trainer that worked with Marcel has finally fired back, claiming the "despicable" actor was simply “jealous” of his co-star. 

“Him still talking ill about the monkey all these years later seems pretty childish to me,” Morris said, noting that in his remarks, Schwimmer was “talking ill of the dead” as one of the monkeys who portrayed Marcel recently died from cancer. "I find it despicable for him to still be speaking ill of her. Him still talking ill about the monkey all these years later seems pretty childish to me… It was one season over 25 years ago, it's time to let it go."

Yet just as their time working together clearly left an impact on Schwimmer, Morris says his time on set was so terrible, he has chosen not to watch the series simply "because of David Schwimmer."

So folks, if you needed another reason not to watch Friends, there you have it. Think of Marcel. 

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