Get paid, Katie the capuchin. It’s a tough industry out there, for simians or otherwise.
The Hollywood Reporter’s latest hot Hollywood casting scoop is that Katie — a female capuchin monkey best known for turns in The Loop, 30 Rock, and yes, Friends — is making a long-awaited return to acting by snapping up the role of Ampersand on FX’s adaptation of Y: The Last Man.
The trade writes, “THR checked in with representatives for Katie’s animal trainer, who confirmed the casting as well as her age: She’s currently in her mid-to-late-20s and still has plenty of career left as capuchin monkeys can live to the ripe old age of 40.”
Ampersand, a male capuchin in Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra’s beloved post-apocalyptic comic series, becomes one of Yorick’s closest friends when, like his trainer/owner, he becomes one half of the last surviving male mammals in the wake of a sudden deadly plague outbreak that wipes out every other male on the planet.
While Ampersand is a big get in 2019’s incredibly-stacked monkey-role market, Katie will likely forever be known for her turn as Ross Gellar’s ill-advised pet choice, Marcel the Monkey. Katie played Marcel — also male, so there is probably someone out there angrily uploading a YouTube video about these damn Social Justice Capuchins taking more role models for men from the world — on Friends between 1994 and 1996.
As Marcel, Katie did everything from cutely sit atop shoulders to, err, hump everything in sight, forcing Ross to give up his primate pal to the San Diego Zoo, where Marcel was eventually stolen and put into a career in Hollywood. As monkeys are wont to do, apparently.
What iconic capuchin could Katie play next in this precarious media landscape? I’m not sure, but I am sure I really needed a reminder of my place in the world on a Monday by being confronted with the incredibly successful career of a single monkey. Truly an inspiration to us all.