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Shields guest-starred as Erika, an off-kilter super fan of Joey (Matt LeBlanc) who believed Joey was actually Dr. Drake Ramoray, the fictional character he played inDays of Our Lives. The actress’s multi-episode arc included a scene where she licked Joey’s hand — a setup that apparently angered her tennis champ spouse.
More than a decade later, Shields (and the world) learned that Agassi’s erratic behavior had resulted from hjis addiction to crystal meth, which the athlete revealed — while opening up about his and Shields' troubled relationship — in his 2009 autobiographyOpen.
In a recent conversation with theNew Yorker,Shields revisited the marital falloutshe experience while filming herFriendsrole.
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“It was petulant behavior,” Shields told theNew Yorker. “It co-opted it for me emotionally, because all of a sudden then my focus went to him.”
While speaking about the project, Shields recently told PEOPLE she and Agassi have not been in touch in the 14 years since the release ofOpen— though she does give her ex credit for helping her separate from her mother and managerTeri Shields, who was also a lifelong alcoholic before she died in 2012.
Shields says that, “to this day,” her therapist tells her, “I will always be thankful to Andre because he helped you separate from your mother lovingly.”
Looking back she says, “We understood each other’s trajectory with regards to being famous — or infamous — at such a young age.”
Michael Schwartz
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Shields also looks back on her roleFriendsas “affirming.”
While the show’s producers went back and forth about her “nut” character’s “crazy laugh” and the finger-licking in deference to his character’s surgical excellence, Shields told theNew Yorkerthat her insistence on those details ended up being career-altering.
“I begged for it. ‘It’s so funny. It just makes her crazier. And she’s pretty, so she needs to really be crazy.’ And they were, like, ‘No, no.’ We did the first take, and it was fine. And then the second take, they scream, ‘Shields! Put it back in!'” she said. “All of a sudden, the energy changed, and all these men in suits started coming into the studio. The next day, I was asked if I wanted to do my own television show.”
source: people.com
