However, it wasn’t just other TV shows that Friends spawned. The show’s success kick-started the screen careers of countless actors, from the central sextet themselves to future stars who got their start with guest parts in Friends episodes. Among these actors was Giovanni Ribisi, who went on to star in Saving Private Ryan, the Avatar movies, and the acclaimed crime drama Sneaky Pete, among other notable movies and shows. As Phoebe’s half-brother, Frank Buffay, Ribisi was a frequent guest star in the show’s later seasons.
Frank Jr.’s Actor Giovanni Ribisi Originally Played “Condom Guy” In Friends
However, eagle-eyed viewers who have re-watched the show more than once will know that this isn’t Ribisi’s only role in Friends. Before his more substantial role as Frank was introduced in season 2, episode 21, “The One with the Bullies,” Ribisi played the unnamed Condom Guy in season 2, episode 6, “The One With the Baby On The Bus.” This episode saw Phoebe forced to busk outside Central Perk after the coffee shop’s owner replaced her with a professional musician.
Phoebe struggles with this new setup, not least because of the petty humiliations involved. In one particularly cringeworthy moment, a passerby tosses a condom into her open guitar case instead of spare change, only to then add insult to injury by returning to retrieve the same prophylactic later. Bizarrely, this nameless Condom Guy, who gets only one line of dialogue, is played by the instantly recognizable Ribisi. Interestingly enough, it is actually entirely possible that Frank and the Condom Guy are the same character, although the show never confirms this.
Both of Giovanni Ribisi’s Friends Characters Could Technically Be The Same Person
While there were plenty of great Friends storylines and guest stars, Ribisi’s Frank Jr played a singularly important role in Phoebe’s arc during the show’s later seasons. After he marries his much older love interest, Alice, the pair asks Phoebe to be a surrogate for them since they want to conceive a child. While Phoebe agrees to this setup, she later asks the couple if she can raise one of the children when she learns she’s pregnant with triplets.
Although Frank and Alice end up raising the children by themselves, Frank’s final appearance in the show sees him offer Phoebe the opportunity to take one of the children off his hands. Harried by raising triplets, Frank is a far cry from the twitchy hell raiser the show introduced years earlier. However, Phoebe’s character arc also saw her change a lot between Frank’s introduction and the show’s finale, and Lisa Kudrow’s heroine is unrecognisable from the struggling busker who once received a condom as a tip from Ribisi’s original Friends character years earlier.
