During Friends: the Reunion special on HBO in May 2021, Matt LeBlanc and the creator of Friends shared how LeBlanc broke his shoulder during filming. The injury occurred during the production of the episode, The One Where No One’s Ready, in 1996.
LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani on the show, was performing a scene with his roommate Chandler, where they both fight over a chair. The scene required LeBlanc to jump onto the chair, which he did successfully on three takes.
How Matt LeBlanc accidentally broke his shoulder on Friends Set
However, during the fourth take, he fell and broke his shoulder, causing production to stop. Paramedics were called, and LeBlanc was rushed to the hospital due to severe pain. The incident was kept under wraps for years, but during the Friends: the Reunion special, the creators finally revealed what had happened.
Marta Kauffman said, Lord knows why we had to shoot it a fourth time.
During filming a scene in Friends, Matt LeBlanc suffered an injury after tripping while trying to jump over a coffee table. His shoulder came out of the socket, causing him excruciating pain.
In the Friends: The Reunion special, raw footage of LeBlanc’s injury was shown, including a blood-curdling scream he let out after slinking off to Monica’s bedroom. The cast found it difficult to watch this moment 25 years later, with Courteney Cox expressing her discomfort, saying, “I don’t want to see pain!”
Co-creator David Crane revealed that filming stopped for the night after Matt LeBlanc’s injury. Therefore, they couldn’t film the remaining scenes without him. Unfortunately, it was during a pivotal episode when all six of the characters were present.
His injury was then incorporated into the following episode, “The One with the Jam.” Executive producer Kevin Bright revealed that they waited for LeBlanc to recover before shooting the end of “The One Where No One’s Ready.” Despite being a seemingly straightforward episode, it ended up taking the longest to film due to the unforeseen delay caused by LeBlanc’s injury.
