David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor, director, producer and comedian. He was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 2. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern University with a Bachelor of Arts in theater and speech. After graduation, Schwimmer co-founded the Lookingglass Theatre Company. For much of the late 1980s, he lived in Los Angeles as...
ProfessionTV Actor
Date of Birth2 November 1966
CityAstoria, NY
There are certain sacrifices that you make, and you feel like the only compensation you have as an actor is financial.
When you're playing the same character for a decade it's natural that there are moments when you want to try something new.
Knowing yourself and expressing it is hip. I think knowing yourself is the real journey, for me anyway.
'Friends', even though it was the longest single job I've had, still to me at the end of the day, when it was over it was a job.
London is completely unpredictable when it comes to weather. You'll start a scene, and it's a beautiful morning. You get there at 6 in the morning, set up, you start the scene, start shooting. Three hours later, it is pitch black and rainy.
It's a job - someone's gotta kiss Jennifer Aniston. The reality is, Jennifer and I can do our job well because we truly are friends. But when the day's over, she goes home to her boyfriend and I go home to a magazine.
When I was six years old, my parents took me to this farmers' market with a petting zoo. They put me on a pony and, for some reason, it took off at a run and they had to chase it down. They tell me it was kind of traumatic.
Directing is something I always wanted to do. I started when I was 13 directing scenes in high school and then plays in college with my theatre company.
I like to grow as an actor, and you can do that by playing parts that are unfamiliar to you and uncomfortable.
I've made a good amount of money. I'm very happy that I can now support my theatre company and support friends and family, and I'm ready to maybe go back to school and change careers.
My advice would be to write what is most personal and specific to your experience or your life. And your voice will emerge and because of its specificity, it will be universal.
To be perfectly honest, I feel I have a duty to use my celebrity status in a positive way.
As an actor, the training I received was that I walk through the world as an observer of life and of people. My job is to actually be looking out all the time and watching people.
I really believe that, as an actor, you should be constantly studying other people, and celebrity had the absolute opposite effect on me. It made me want to hide - to run away and hide.