Friends fans were excited after a recent photo of one of the show’s former stars surfaced online, almost 30 years after his debut as Rachel’s charming but difficult boyfriend.
Monday, a Reddit user posted a recent snapshot from the actor who played Paolo, Rachel’s flirtatious Italian neighbor from the sitcom’s first season in 1994.
Paolo made his memorable entrance in the seventh episode, sweeping Rachel off her feet – only to show his less-than-princely side five episodes later by hitting on Phoebe.
Despite his character’s short and controversial stint, fans couldn’t help but admire how well the actor has aged, with one Reddit commenter noting, “Aged like a fine wine (much better now than in ’94).”
Can you guess who this handsome actor is?
Friends fans were excited after a recent photo of one of the show’s former stars surfaced online, nearly 30 years after his debut as Rachel’s charming but difficult boyfriend
On Monday, a Reddit user posted a recent snapshot of the actor who played Paolo, Rachel’s flirtatious Italian neighbor from the sitcom’s first season in 1994.
It is 62-year-old Cosimo Fusco, born in Matera, Italy.
Although Paolo remains his most iconic role, the actor has since appeared in films such as Gone in Sixty Seconds and Angels & Demons, and made guest appearances on TV shows such as Alias and The Mentalist.
Another fan on reddit shared: ‘He looks much better now!’ while another chimed in, “Man, he looks good.” But hey, he always was.’
One summed it up simply, writing: ‘He always looked good, they deliberately used hair and costumes to make him look as slimy as possible like someone from the cover of an erotic novel.’
The Reddit post follows Fusco’s revelation that he added many of his lines while portraying the charming lover boy in Friends.
“I was asked to improvise,” Fusco told the station Show today in 2019 in honor of the beloved sitcom’s 25th anniversary.
‘I was a bit skeptical because my English wasn’t as good then as it is now, let’s be honest. But I was told I wasn’t allowed to speak English. “Say whatever you want in Italian.”
“I made up most of the Italian that Paolo spoke,” he admitted at the time.
Paolo made his memorable entrance in the seventh episode, sweeping Rachel off her feet – only to show his less-than-princely side five episodes later by hitting on Phoebe.
Although Paolo remains his most iconic role, the actor has since appeared in films such as Gone in Sixty Seconds and Angels & Demons, and made guest appearances on TV shows such as Alias and The Mentalist.
Despite his character’s short and controversial stint, fans couldn’t help but admire how well the actor has aged, with one Reddit commenter noting: ‘Aged like a fine wine (much better now than in ’94)
“When I stand at the window with Jennifer and say, ‘Look at the moon, look at the stars.’ … I just made those rules up.”
Fusco shared at the time that he is often asked about his experiences kissing Jennifer Aniston during his time on Friends.
“She was a sweet, adorable young woman, a very talented actress,” he said.
‘The combination of the six [actors] was great, the chemistry was great,” he recalled. “And they were so generous to me because they understood that I was a young guy from Italy who had been cast in a sitcom.”
