David Schwimmer discusses ‘Feed the Beast’ and other projects

It’s been over 10 years since David Schwimmer played Ross on Friends, but he’s continued his career in acting and gradually moving to a less-comedic role in a new drama series. On The Today Show, Swimmer talked to Matt Lauer about his upcoming new series, Feed the Best, and his recent gig as Robert Kardashian on The People v. O.J Simpson.

Schwimmer described the new drama as something with dark humor mixed with excessive food and wine. The 49-year-old actor plays a character that lost his wife and now struggles to raise his young son. After showing a short clip to audiences, Schwimmer explained, “My son hasn’t spoken since he saw his mother killed in a hit and run, so it’s been a year since he’s spoken and I’m trying to manage as a single father … and I’m also a sommelier, so my best friend played by Jim Sturgess gets out of prison and we decide to rekindle that dream of starting a restaurant.” He then explained the complexity of borrowing money from the mob to get the restaurant started.

When Lauer asked if his recent roles have been taken as a conscious decision or if they were presented to him, Schwimmer said, “It’s not any kind of conscious decision…” He was offered the roles and took them based on whom he was working with in The People v. O.J Simpson and what he thought was a great character on Feed the Beast. The latter was created by Clive Phillips, best known for the series Dexter that aired on Showtime from 2006 to 2013.

Feed the Beast premieres Jun 5 on AMC.