In the long and winding road that was the Ross-and-Rachel relationship on Friends, there were a few speed bumps. One of the first was Julie, Ross’ super-sweet paleontologist girlfriend. In the show’s first season finale, Rachel finds out about Ross’ crush on her (thanks to big-mouthed Chandler) and rushes to meet him at the airport, only to find him with his new girlfriend, Julie, played by Lauren Tom. Julie actually stuck around for several episodes, meaning Tom had plenty to contribute to a recent Today piece celebrating the show’s 25th anniversary, as Vulture pointed out.
As Tom relays to Today, everyone was so into the Ross/Rachel relationship that the audience hated her character, even though she was about the nicest person ever portrayed on the show. “I wasn’t prepared for the amount of venom I was about to receive in a live audience where they actually booed my character… And, of course, I was trying very hard not to get my feelings hurt. So I had to get used to that.” But she did get that Ross and Rachel were an endgame couple, making her position temporary. “Even I was rooting for Rachel, on some level, ’cause I was a fan of the show.”