David Schwimmer 'hated' Marcel the Monkey - but trainer said 'jealous' actor sparked feud

David Schwimmer's long-standing grudge against Marcel the Monkey is a well-known story in Hollywood.

He wasn't exactly fond of the two female capuchins, Katie and Monkey, who portrayed Ross's pet Marcel on Friends.

In an interview in 1995, David candidly expressed his aversion to the monkey. He openly shared his frustrations, stating his inability to bond with the monkey due to the trainers' strict rules.

As Entertainment Weekly reported, David didn't hold back his thoughts on acting alongside the monkeys.

"I hate the monkey. 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," he shared.

During the 2021 Friends reunion, David brought up his old grudge again. He complained about the trained monkey, Marcel, messing up their carefully planned scenes.

“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 stated.

However, Mike Morris, the animal trainer for Marcel, offered a different take. He suggested that David might have been "jealous" of the capuchins.

Mike shared his thoughts, saying initially David seemed quite friendly with Marcel. But as the monkey started getting more laughs, Mike felt David might have been thrown off.

"This is just my opinion... [but] the first couple episodes [David] was pretty friendly with the monkey, and after that, the monkey was getting a lot of laughs, and either it was throwing him off or [he was] getting a little jealous," Mike stated. "I don't know. One of those two things."

Mike observed that David's co-stars, Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc, who also interacted with the monkeys, were great to work with.

Matt even told Jimmy Kimmel how much he loved working with Marcel, calling the experience "really cool."

Katie, one of the monkeys, continued her acting career after Friends, appearing on shows like 30 Rock and The Loop. Her most recent TV appearance was in the Nickelodeon sitcom Sam & Cat, which featured Ariana Grande.

Nowadays, Katie serves as the mascot for the LA Angels baseball team.

Unfortunately, Monkey, the other capuchin, recently passed away from cancer, casting David's long-standing feud with both monkeys in a somewhat awkward light.