20 Years Later, This ‘Friends’ Guest Star Reveals The Truth Behind the Series Finale

Jim Rash is the very definition of the word multihyphenate. He’s an actor, Academy Award-winning writer, producer, and director, and he’s left his fingerprints on just about every television series you can imagine. Most recently, he’s at the helm of HBO Max’s new movie Miss You, Love You, an original drama both written and directed by Rash, starring Academy Award winner Allison Janney and Tony Award nominee Andrew Rannells. But before he tried his hand behind the camera, Rash had a pretty incredible stint with small roles and as extras, working with Steven Spielberg, Al Pacino, and landing a spot in the series finale of Friends.

While chatting with Rash about Miss You, Love You, a low-budget, 17-day shoot about two strangers who form a bond through their grief, anger, and resentment, Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the opportunity to revisit a highlight reel of Rash’s career. From his beginnings with The Groundlings to penning the Oscar-winning screenplay for The Descendants, he discusses everything from his greatest failure to the “prickly” on-set atmosphere for the final episode of Friends, and “flop-sweating” in front of Pacino and Catherine Keener.

Don’t miss the full conversation in the video above or the transcript below, where Rash also discusses how Miss You, Love You is a return to “a swath of types of films we love” that Hollywood has designated to the back burner. He shares how HBO Films championed their harried production, how Janney and Rannells conquered a 25-page dialogue scene, 15-minute takes, and why this drama is exactly what audiences are missing these days.

Jim Rash Reflects on Filming the ‘Friends’ Series Finale

“They couldn’t be lovelier.”

Image via NBC

COLLIDER: With Disclosure Day coming up, which is the new Spielberg, do you have a favorite Steven Spielberg movie — without saying Minority Report, since you’re in it?

JIM RASH: Oh, that’s not fair.

Or you could say Minority Report.

RASH: Well, that’s a whole other story, because I’m in but not in it. That’s a story for another day. I don’t know. E.T.?

There’s no wrong answer.

RASH: There can’t be, right? It’s all of them. But then maybe that’s just because, certainly for my generation, that was close to your heart.

With The Odyssey coming out this summer, do you have a favorite Chris Nolan movie?

RASH: Oh my God. Memento?

Sure. Again, no wrong answer.

RASH: No wrong answer. But I love it. I think story and craft-wise, I mean, it breaks your brain.

You were in the very last episode of Friends as a, quote-unquote, nervous male passenger. What was it like being in one episode of Friends, which happens to be the series finale?

RASH: Oh, a complete joy because I arrived in LA in ‘94, I think in their first year, and this was 10 years later, obviously. They were in, understandably, the crew and them, such an emotional place because they were closing a chapter. So, it did feel like you were like a guest in a very prickly — and I don’t mean “prickly” in a negative way, I just mean like, “I’m just gonna come in, do my business, and let them be emotionally understanding that they’re dealing with stuff.” But they couldn’t be lovelier for having all that on their heads right there.

Who was the most excited in your life that you had booked Friends?

RASH: Outside of myself? [Laughs] Because I only live in my own world. That’s hard. I can’t answer that question because I don’t know if there’s a particular one.

You and Nat [Faxon] have a very successful relationship, and I’m just curious, what is the thing that you guys tend to always disagree about?

RASH: There’s not much, but maybe how much we can take on. Because he wants to keep throwing things out, and I’m like, “That’s not how it works.” I like to focus on one thing. He goes, “But I want to do that too.” And that is a great impression of him. “I want to do that too.”

It’s interesting you say that, though. I know a lot of directors, and the reason why they’re attached to six things is they don’t know what’s going to get made.

RASH: And that’s what he would say if you were our therapist and you were batting back and forth. He would say, “Yeah, but we don’t know what’s going to go.” But even for me, I don’t mind a couple of things, but I like to do a few things well.

Jim Rash Reveals His “Favorite Failure” — And the Sketch That Bombed Hard

“It’s a blessed event to crash and burn in front of 99 people.”

Image via NBC.

You have a Grounding background, and I’m curious how that impacts when you’re writing dialogue? Do you act out certain things?

RASH: I walk, or I pace, whether it’s by myself or even with Nat, pacing. In this particular movie, acting out all the characters, at least my version of what it was, because I like rhythm. I do think Groundlings helped me not just with character-based comedy. Even though that’s sketch comedy, we do get to the heart of why these sketch characters are the way they are, and that gives it another layer and then structure. Groundlings was a graduate school for me, so I really was learning structure, even in a five-page version of it.

Between Mike Tyson Mysteries and DuckTales, you voiced some very eccentric characters. Do you find it easier to find a character’s soul through a drawing or through the costume?

RASH: There’s something tactile about having something on. I remember Fly Me to the Moon, which is fabulous clothes. I knew a lot once I put those clothes on.

You were great in that.

RASH: Thank you. And not that a drawing doesn’t do that, but I would say, if you made me choose, I think putting something on helps.

What looks great on screen, but is miserable to film?

RASH: Well, I did Sky High. This was early days. I’m sure they’ve worked it out. The Marvel world understands costumes. We were using, like, the once-you-got-in-it-you-couldn’t-get-out type thing, so they were very hot. I wore this, and they was sort of cumbersome and you couldn’t sit, so they’d have these kinds of chairs that you could just lean against. So, the advancement’s been made, but it looks fun, and it’s a fun character to play. But the morning of sitting in the chair for a long time, you just have to process that, “They’re going to put a bunch of glue on me. We’ll get this on. It’s going to take a while.”

Image via Buena Vista/courtesy Everett Collection

It’s so funny because a lot of people from the outside don’t really understand what it’s like on set and how unglamorous it can be.

RASH: At times, it can be. I mean, it’s all like a playground once you really take a step back and go, like, “I’m grateful for it.” But there was one where the character looks great, but then you realize how much it takes to get into that, and that paled in comparison to anyone on, like, a Star Trek or something.

What’s your favorite failure?

RASH: Well, my favorite failure of a small thing is going to be anything that’s on the Groundlings when you have a sketch that bombs, and I had a thing called “Big, Big Office.” You don’t need to know what it was about, because the audience didn’t want to know what it was about, because they hated it. All I know is it was deadly silent, and at one point, not kidding, a woman from the audience in the dark, all I heard was, “What is going on?” Angry. That’s my favorite failure because it’s a blessed event to crash and burn in front of 99 people.

What’s the most amount of takes you’ve ever done?

RASH: As an actor?

Yes. And then as a director.

RASH: Lord, I did an excruciating, probably 10, I would say, takes when I was in S1m0ne. I’m guessing that was the number of takes. It felt probably like 27. Not because the director wanted it, because I was flop-sweat, Albert Brooks, not remembering my speech, and Al Pacino and Catherine Keener were behind me, and I couldn’t look them in the eyes because I’d just met them. I had one of two flop-sweat moments. One is with the man on your T-shirt, [Steven Spielberg]. Like, Albert Brooks, that was my life.

Image via New Line/courtesy Everett Collection

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I can’t imagine going through that when you’re on set.

RASH: It’s awful. If we had more time, I’d tell you both those stories. And one day I will tell that man the story, because I bet you he doesn’t even know.

What’s the most amount of takes you’ve done as a director?

RASH: To be honest with you, certainly with Way, Way Back, and now with Miss You, Love You, the time was not our… It’s like a three-take thing. So I would say in Downhill we had a little bit more time, and a budget that allowed us, and we had scenes that were very involved. But I would say Julia Louis-Dreyfus — not because she wouldn’t do it; she was given so many different things, but we had to do so many different things on her. I mean, she must have done 20 takes of those things. Again, all gold, just us needing it.

No, totally, and also for coverage. I totally get it.

‘Miss You, Love You’ Returns to the Kinds of Films Hollywood’s Forgotten

“We easily forget the wide swath of types of films we love.”

Image via HBO Max

Getting into why I get to talk to you today, congrats on the movie. I am very confused, though. The movie doesn’t have explosions.

RASH: Nope.

And it’s a lot of people talking.

RASH: Yeah.

So how exactly did you get this made?

RASH: [Laughs] That is very fair, and I’m thankful I’m sitting in front of you. Because many people, including Gigi Pritzker, Madison Wells, and my friend Kevin Walsh, pushed us to the finish line knowing that we had something, and then also Allison [Janney] and Andrew [Rannells] certainly help when they react to something. And while we’re doing it on a small budget on the scales, it’s the movies you love to make, but it’s tough. But every time someone watches a movie like this, and it’s not just this movie, we’re like, “Oh, I miss this!” And I think we easily forget the wide swath of types of films we love. And thank God HBO opened their doors and brought us in and made us part of their home because it’s kind of where these things are.

Image via HBO Max

The thing is, this kind of movie, they used to make a lot of them, and then they’re just gone. So now when I see one, I’m like, “Oh yes, I remember this.”

RASH: It can happen. The journey is always everyone’s got their story of how many years it takes to get something done. I even remember, and I’ve told this anecdote, when we were grateful enough to have the experience of The Descendants, as far as getting to watch Alexander Payne work, he talks a lot about making movies that in the ‘70s would be giant summer tentpoles or something. Not his exact words, but being told, “Oh, I’m making independent movies?” Which is fine. We’re blessed for it. But yeah, it’s lovely to think about that.

I’m always fascinated by how projects change along the way. So you start writing this thing. I know you put a lot of yourself into Andrew’s character, but ultimately, from where he started to what people are going to watch, did it go through radical changes, or was it pretty much, “This is the idea?”

RASH: I guess inevitably it goes through changes, both within my own confines of writing, but when Andrew and Allison came on, I wasn’t having to change the part for them because they could tap into it. I think if anything, it’s like you said, that table for the first time with them, and you start to see where you can pull some words out because they’re giving you beauty within the lines, and that kind of stuff. But I think for the most part, save for the usual trims and cuts, I got what I wrote.

Jim Rash Filmed a 25-Page Scene as One Continuous First Act

The director explains how Allison Janney and Andrew Rannells pulled off a 15-minute take.

Image via HBO Max

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I was so impressed at the beginning of the movie. It is like a play, except a movie, but the first act, I don’t know how many pages of dialogue they did, but it must have been about 1,000. I’m exaggerating, but…

RASH: No, it was 1,000 pages.

What was it like actually filming that, where you need to figure out the blocking and all of that, because you’re in one location, but they have to deliver so much, and you obviously don’t have a lot of time?

RASH: Yes, technically, structurally, the first act is one scene. So like, the first 25 pages are technically one scene for sure.

You sure it’s 25? I thought it was 1,000.

RASH: It’s almost 1,000. It hopefully didn’t feel like 1,000, but I hear what you’re saying. From the minute she opens the door and lets him in to the minute she agrees to let him stay, that’s pretty much act one story structure. So, we took that scene and divided it with Danny Moder, our DP, into three doable chunks.

One of those chunks had to be 13 pages, so for one day, we shot in three days that particular chunk. So what we got to do, though, for their benefit, was we did a long 15-minute takes where they just performed those 13 pages over and over and over again. We were all very quiet for 15 minutes, which allowed them to be very much in the moment. So, it’s stressful, and then I guess you leave the day going, “We got 13!” But, yeah, at least the first act was very much a challenge, as was the fight towards the later part.

There’s some really emotional stuff in the third act, and I’m so curious, as a director, when you have to have actors that are going to really emotionally be vulnerable, and as an actor yourself, how much are you doing the rehearsals of these full scenes in advance, and how much do you want to save the raw emotion that can come out for when you’re actually on set?

RASH: Rehearsal time is limited, especially in these small movies where we have 17 days. We would say, “We have to get them here,” or early in, “Let’s do a little rehearsal.” I had them for a couple of days in the house before we even started shooting to do some of those larger, chunkier things. Not that we got up to the full performance, emotional stuff.

But I feel like at some point you have to sort of read where the actor is going. You can see where this very a lot after a lot. But Allison and Andrew, I would say, for the most part, we do things in three takes. For the most part. But yes, we would get them in the room, see where they wanted to go, and, for the most part, hopefully, follow their lead, unless we were like, “That’s too many setups. We can’t go over there, but what’s over here?” [Laughs]

Miss You, Love You is available to stream now on HBO Max.