Why is David Schwimmer Beefing with the Late Monkey from Friends?

Marcel the monkey’s trainer Mike Morris is hitting back at David Schwimmer after the actor took shots at his late Friends co-star.

“I find it despicable for him to still be speaking ill of her,” Morris told The Sun, referring to comments Schwimmer made on the monkeys who played Marcel during the recent Friends reunion.

During a Q&A portion of the reunion, Schwimmer was asked if there was a part of the show that he did not like.

“The monkey,” he answered bluntly. “I would have monkey grubby hands all over. It was time for Marcel to fuck off!”

Schwimmer explained that the monkeys who played Marcel were fed live bugs while they filmed, claiming that the animals would also mess up the timing for their takes.

Well, Morris has another explanation for Schwimmer’s beef with the monkeys, alleging that the actor was merely jealous of the animals.

“I just don’t agree with it, if anything [Schwimmer] threw off [the monkeys’] timing if we want to be truthful,” he said. “Schwimmer was fine with the monkeys for the first couple of episodes and happy to be there. But people would laugh at the monkey and I think he got jealous because it wasn’t him getting the laughs.”

“My colleague who also worked on the show says that people would laugh at the monkey and throw Schwimmer off,” he added. “He’s not the kind of actor who can improvise.”

Morris also debunked earlier claims Schwimmer made about the monkeys, which were so upsetting to the animal trainer, that they deterred him from the series altogether.

“I have never ever watched Friends because of Schwimmer’s comments about the monkeys,” he said. I have refused to ever since he did an interview after the animals got written out of the show and he said they tried to bite him and throw poop at him. They didn’t do any of that. None of it is true, when I was there none of that ever happened.”

Morris also accused Schwimmer of refusing to prep with the monkeys, claiming he “didn’t want to rehearse with her.”

“We had to rehearse with the monkey by herself and then he would come in and things wouldn’t be the same so it made it harder,” said Morris. “It got to the point where he just really resented the monkey being there, he obviously had a problem with her and he’s still talking about it now.”

Watch Macel’s Friends debut above, via YouTube.