David Crane's and Marta Kauffman's sitcom "Friends" was constructed and pitched to be very low-concept. There were no strange dramatic conceits or an unusual premise that would take a long time to explain. It was simply a show about six friends (two of them siblings) who lived in neighboring apartments in New York City. The characters were all in their 20s, and spent the series navigating various jobs and relationships, finding they were forming an ersatz family in one another. The success of the show was going to contingent on the writing (of course) and on the charisma of the six leads. Luckily, the casting director on "Friends" was spot-on, finding six perfectly-matched, attractive white twentysomethings to inhabit the show's mythically inexpensive New York apartments.

Each one of the six "Friends" became gigantic stars, and it wasn't long before they were fetching gigantic salaries. Jennifer Aniston played the lovelorn Rachel, Courteney Cox played her best friend Monica, Lisa Kudrow played the flighty hippie Phoebe, David Schwimmer played Monica's neurotic brother Ross (beloved by Rachel), Matt LeBlanc played the cocky actor Joey, and the late Matthew Perry played the amusingly smug "transponster" Chandler.

Because chemistry and comedic talent were key to the success of "Friends," the audition process was extensive. Out of 1,000 auditions, 75 actors became finalists. After many callbacks and heartbreaking phone calls, the 75 was eventually winnowed down to 18, with three potential actors for each central role. Fans of "Friends" likely know the litany of actors who were turned away, including Jon Cryer, Hank Azaria, Kathy Griffin, the too-young Tiffani Amber Thiessen, Craig Bierko, Vince Vaughn, and, yes, future Marvel filmmaker Jon Favreau.

Favreau auditioned to play Chandler, and was indeed one of the finalists. He turned the role down, however. The reason why was covered by a 2011 article in Vulture. In short, he wanted to make movies instead.