Actress Brooke Shields was branded the “face of a decade” in the ’80s on the cover of TIME, but she has since made a name for herself outside of modeling thanks to a roster of zany comedic roles. That includes appearing as Joey Tribbiani’s stalker Erika in a 1996 episode of Friends.
Though that appearance went on to land Shields her own sitcom, she revealed that not everyone loved her performance.
In an interview with The New Yorker, Shields recounted how her husband at the time, tennis player Andre Agassi, “stormed out” after she performed her scene opposite Friends actor Matt LeBlanc.
“In the scene, I’m supposed to lick Joey’s fingers, because they’re the hands of a genius, and I want to devour them, and I’m a nut,” she recalled. “[LeBlanc] was cute—he was, like, ‘I’ve washed my hands and they’re all clean.’ I was, like, ‘I had a mint!'”
Agassi was in the audience but stormed out after watching her performance. “He said, ‘Everybody’s making fun of me. You made a fool of me by that behavior.’ I’m, like, ‘It’s comedy! What is the matter with you?'” Shields said.
Agassi reportedly went home and “smashed all his trophies” after the incident. Shields called his reaction “petulant.”
“I learned later that he was addicted to crystal meth at that point, so that irrational behavior I’m sure had something to do with that,” she said.
The New Yorker noted that Agassi wrote about using meth in 1997 in his autobiography, but he did not provide a comment.
Her daring performance in Friends earned the actress her first sitcom, Suddenly Susan, for which Shields received two Golden Globe nominations for best actress in a comedy series.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
