While 2000's The Next Best Thing was a critical failure, a personal tragedy was unfolding behind the scenes.

Rupert Everett recently reflected on his role in John Schlesinger's romantic comedy and how it put a “strain” on his friendship with co-star Madonna, which is why he now “looks the other way” when the film is on TV.

“It wasn't really a box office failure because of video sales at the time — Madonna was selling a lot of videos — but the movie itself didn't work, even though it was the only movie for a long time that addressed this problem that was really happening and being born at the time,” Everett said on the How to Fail podcast.

Written by Tom Ropelewski, The Next Best Thing starred Madonna as Abbie and Everett as her gay best friend Robert, with whom she has a baby after a drunken night of intimacy. But their modern family hits a rough patch when Abbie starts dating Ben (Benjamin Bratt).