Friends' monkey handler defends Marcel from David Schwimmer, calls human actor "jealous"

David Schwimmer is in a feud with two monkeys and the human who loves them, whether he likes it or not. After enduring years of shit-talking from Schwimmer about the pair of capuchin monkeys who portrayed Friends’ star-player, Marcel The Monkey, the guy responsible for training them has gone to The Sun in order to set the record straight and elevate the interspecies beef in the process.

Likely egged on by the fact that Marcel’s actors were not paid an exorbitant fee to chitter, scream, and hop up and down as the hosts of the Friends reunion, handler Mike Morris has responded to the latest instance of simian slander during the reunion special by—as The Sun puts it—“speaking out for the first time ever” about the long-standing feud.

Responding to Schwimmer’s accusations that Katie and the unimaginatively named Monkey, the capuchin thespians in question, would attempt to bite him, throw their shit around, leave half-eaten meal worms on him, and mess with his timing, Morris has said, “They didn’t do any of that. None of it is true.”

Morris says he only heard that the monkeys were further disparaged during the reunion secondhand since he has “never ever watched Friends because of Schwimmer’s comments about the monkeys” and he wasn’t about to start now. He says the first shoots were fine but that “people would laugh at the monkey and I think [Schwimmer] got jealous because it wasn’t him getting the laughs.”

“If anything,” Morris says, “He threw off their timing if we want to be truthful.” He adds that it was only natural that “the monkeys didn’t like working with [Schwimmer] after he turned on them,” that the human actor “seemed to get a little bitter” about sharing screen time with the capuchins, and he says that “[Schwimmer is] not the kind of actor who can improvise” with an animal. Unlike Friends’ Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc, who were apparently cool with Monkey and Katie.

“We worked on a scene with Jennifer where the monkey supposedly pooped in her shoe,” he says, “And she was a pleasure to work with.” Morris contrasts Schwimmer not just with Aniston and LeBlanc, but Katie The Monkey’s other co-stars, like the cast of Outbreak and Jerry Seinfeld, who didn’t have a problem with the distinguished capuchin.

Making matters worse, Monkey the Monkey died last year at 36 years old from cancer, “so Schwimmer was talking ill of the dead when he made those comments.” Morris concludes: “I find it despicable for him to still be speaking ill of her.”

That said, Morris offers Schwimmer an olive branch during his interview. “The monkeys definitely wouldn’t hold a grudge against David,” he says. “If Katie had to work with him again tomorrow she would do it no problem.” He gets a final dig in, saying, “They’re just good-natured animals and probably don’t even remember him,” but he leaves things there.

Your move, Schwimmer.

[via E! Online]

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