23, 2004. After the series finale, Stage 24 was renamed "The Friends Stage". A month before the filming of the final episode, Aniston said that with each episode it got "harder just to read the lines." She explained that the cast was "all just nerves and raw emotions ... No one knows how to feel. We may need to be sedated on the last night." The producers promised a tearful ending, and the cast admitted their crying was not faked when they filmed their scenes. LeBlanc revealed it had been too much for him and the rest of the cast; he said Kudrow started crying first, and when he looked at Aniston and Cox they also appeared emotional. Schwimmer, who LeBlanc thought was the "consummate professional", was also upset, so LeBlanc "just lost it." Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler's "on and off" girlfriend Janice, told People, "the entire cast had to go back and have their makeup redone before starting," and that Perry broke the tension by saying, "Somebody is gonna get fired." Perry told the New York Daily News that he did not cry, "but I felt like I was about to for like seven hours." Although it was planned that some key scenes of the episode would be filmed without an audience to avoid leaks of plot spoilers, the producers decided not to worry about the issue and filmed it all in front of the live studio audience. The producers also instigated the rumor that multiple endings would be filmed; in fact, only one was planned and shot. At the start of each Friends episode filming, the cast would ordinarily be introduced to the studio audience one at a time, but this time the cast headed out for their pre-curtain bow together. "That made me cry," said Diane Newman, who was the script supervisor of the show. Among the specially invited audience of the taping were Hank Azaria, who played Phoebe's scientist boyfriend David in several episodes over the years; David Arquette, who filmed his then-wife Cox and the others backstage with a video camera; and Wheeler. Missing was Brad Pitt, Aniston's then-husband; Pitt told the producers he wanted to be surprised when the finale aired on television. Although some guests were invited, around 75% of the studio audience were 'ordinary' members of the public so that their reactions would be congruous with the rest of the series.