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David Schwimmer on the ‘Beauty’ of ‘Goosebumps’ and How ‘Friends’ Went From ‘Challenging’ and ‘Dark’ to the ‘Gift That Keeps on Giving’

David Schwimmer, the star of 'Goosebumps,' on how he would have 'devoured' the R.L. Stine books at 13, and why his daughter stopped watching 'Friends.'

Since becoming a father in 2011, “I’ve really been enjoying being a parent and not really wanting to leave home that much, to be honest with you, so I guess I became a bit pickier in terms of what would take me away,” Schwimmer tells Variety on a recent video call. Below, Schwimmer opens up about his first foray into horror-comedy, his attraction to playing men who are often broken and in pain — and why, despite the intense scrutiny he and his castmates were forced to endure decades ago, he still considers “Friends” to be “the gift that keeps on giving.” It’s a lot, and it’s kind of heavy, but I think that it’s a good setup for where the show goes and the mystery that we eventually unravel that ties all the way back to something that happened 30 years prior to my brother in that same place that I lived when I was a kid.

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