Maggie Wheeler as Janice on TV comedy Friends sound completely different in real life.
Maggie Wheeler as Janice on TV comedy Friends sound completely different in real life.
OH. My. God. It's Janice from Friends.
It has been 12 years since the comedy series ended, but fans are still crazy about one of its most iconic characters - Janice Litman Goralnik (nee Hosenstein).
Actress Maggie Wheeler was only supposed to star in one episode of the hit show, but ended up appearing in 19 as Janice, the love interest of Matthew Perry's character, Chandler Bing.
That's because her nasally voice, obnoxious laugh and trademark catchphrase "Oh My God" endeared her to fans around the world.
But when Wheeler, 55, yesterday appeared on UK program This Morning as herself, viewers couldn't believe how different she sounded.
One Twitter user wrote: "Janice from Friends is on This Morning and a part of me has died inside realising she doesn't actually talk like Janice from Friends."
Asked by the show's hosts to do what everyone wanted to hear, Wheeler happily obliged.
"Oh my gaawwwd," she drawled, before admitting she "never gets tired of doing that."
Wheeler said she came up with her character's hilarious laugh "organically".
"It was this progression of how Janice evolved and how the writers created the character for me. The laugh just happened organically," she said.
"Matthew Perry is so funny. I created Janice's laugh because I knew I needed something."
Maggie Wheeler played Janice, Chandler Bing's love interest in Friends.
The Californication actress also said she gets recognised in public, and is happy to mimic Janice if asked.
Wheeler said her favourite scene on Friends was the Valentine's Day episode called The One with the Candy Hearts.
"I have many favourite moments. In that Valentine's restaurant where she says, 'Because you know, you could make little puppets out of them, and you could use them in your theatre of cruelty'," she said.
