Friends' Ugly Naked Guy has finally been identified
'You want to let the world know who the real Ugly Naked Guy is, huh?'
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Across the street from Monica and Rachel’s flat lived a man who Friends fans need no introduction to; the Ugly Naked Guy.
The character, who Phoebe once described as being cute before (becoming overweight), was seen on screen on three occasions.
Each time, his face was turned away, his identity never revealed (even though he shared a very intimate scene with Ross).
Finally, after years of keeping his identity secret, the Ugly Naked Guy from across the street has identified himself in public.
In a quite wonderful piece by The Huffington Post, Todd Van Luling details his year-long struggle in attempting to find out who played the Ugly Naked Guy (UNG).
After reaching out to members of the cast, directors, and casting agents, the writer reached out to Central Casting - the team who cast the extras in Friends - for the second time. One member of the team finally got back to him, saying they found UNG.
“Finally, one year after my journey began, I got on the phone with the man of mystery,” Luling writes. “His name: Jon Haugen.”
“You want to let the world know who the real Ugly Naked Guy is, huh?” Hagen asked. “There’s only one Ugly Naked Guy, man, and that was me.
“The reason I never came forward,” he explained, “was because I was just keeping it mellow because Warner Brothers was keeping it mellow. They wanted everybody to have a guess who I was.”
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Speaking with other members of the team, they seemingly recognised Haugen’s claim and - while they couldn’t say beyond reasonable doubt he was involved - everyone seemingly agreed he was UNG.
Talking about the naked scene he shares with Ross, the extra admitted: “I was in boxer shorts. At first, I was feeling a little shy because I had about 500 people watching me in the audience besides the crew and everything.
“But after about two minutes went by, I was real comfortable and David Schwimmer was real comfortable. We were just in boxer shorts and they made it look like we were naked.”
Like all Friends fans, he also spoke about wanting to do a Friends reunion - something Mathew Perry has recently spoken unfavourably about.
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