6

I am talking about this scene in the TV series, Friends when Joey and Ross were stuck on the roof of the building and they wanted to go down the building another way.

In this scene, Joey was holding himself and at the same time, Ross was hanging on him.

That seems like too much weight.

I have been wondering if Joey (Matt Le Blanc) was really strong enough to hold this much weight the whole scene filming or if there was a support mechanism that helped him stay in this position until the end of the scene?

enter image description here

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    From the clip i saw, note how joey never lets go of the rail nor change position. Probably shows theres a harness of some kind involved. No BTS articles I've seen yet highlight it though.
    – blobbymcblobby
    Nov 7, 2022 at 16:43
  • Joey's arms are always slightly bent, too, indicating he's not fully supporting the weight. Ross seems to be able to hold on remarkably well with his hands below his own shoulders - not an easily-held position when hanging off someone. Joey's harness would be easy to hide, but I can't figure where Ross's would be. I'd very much doubt they've got CGI painting the wires out.
    – Tetsujin
    Nov 8, 2022 at 9:18
  • Plenty of work with with those fifteens!
    – Paul D. Waite
    Jan 12 at 11:57

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
9

The usual way to do this "stunt" is to have a seat in place that the camera cannot see. Usually it's connected with a rod down the actors' sleeves, and their arms may be entirely fake. This is similar to the "living statue" levitation trick.

Notice how Joey's arms are slightly bent, and he easily swings back and forth (but not side to side). He also never moves his hands. This suggests a hinged connection hidden by his gloves.

In this case there may be an additional support connected to the back wall that Ross can hold.

Improve this answer
4

I have been wondering if Joey (Matt Le Blanc) was really strong enough to hold this much weight the whole scene filming

He didn't have to. It wasn't filmed as a continuous shot.

The camera angle changes several times. Each one of these was shot separately. There would be a gap in between where the crew adjust the cameras, lighting, microphone and so on. And they probably weren't shot in broadcast order.

Note that for most of the scene, their legs aren't in view. They filmed those shots standing on a platform.

There's really only a few seconds where both characters show their legs unsupported. And for that, see OrangeDog's answer.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .