‘He smashed all his trophies’: How this Friends scene sent Andre Agassi into a rage

Formerly married to actress Brooke Shields, tennis legend Andre Agassi obviously didn’t appreciate his ex-wife’s time on the hit show Friends at the end of the 90s. The American actress and producer has just revealed the reason.

In 1995, Brooke Shields appeared as a guest-star in the episode The one who finds his monkey (The One After the Superbowl in English) from the hit sitcom Friends. The actress, discovered as a child in the feature film The little by Louis Malle, plays a certain Erika Ford, a groupie of Dr. Drake Ramoray, the doctor played by Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) in the soap opera The days of our life. The actress was at the time married to Andre Agassi, one of the most iconic tennis players of the 1990s, who obviously couldn’t bear to see his wife flirt with her on-screen playing partner.

Friends : the reasons for Andre Agassi’s nervous breakdown

In the NBC phenomenon series, Erika is convinced that Joey is the real Dr. Ramoray from her favorite soap opera. In one of the scenes of the episode in question, Chandler’s best friend invites him to a restaurant in the hope of opening his eyes, but the main interested party suddenly starts moaning and then… licking his fingers. “On the first take, they didn’t want me to giggle and lick his fingers. (…) And I begged them to do it. ‘It’s so funny. It makes her even crazier. And she’s pretty, so she needs to be really crazy. We did the first take, and it was good. And on the second take, they yelled, ‘Shields! Do it again!'”explains the 57-year-old actress to the New Yorkeron March 26.

“He stormed off“

If all the comedy of this scene lies precisely in the excessive behavior of the character of Brooke Shields, her husband did not see it that way. According to the star of Blue Lagoon (1980), Andre Agassi was mad with rage. “André was in the audience to support me, and he stormed off. He said: ‘Everyone is laughing at me. You made fun of me with this behavior. I replied: ‘It’s comedy! What is wrong with you ?'”, she continues in the columns of the american magazine, adding that her husband at the time had then demolished all his trophies on returning home. According to her, this excessive temper is linked to Agassi’s methamphetamine consumption, which he himself admitted in 2009 in his biography. Open. A drug that causes multiple harmful physical and mental effects, such as confusion, anger, anxiety or deep sadness. Now 52, ​​the American shares his life with Steffi Graf, also a tennis champion.

Article written in collaboration with 6Médias