Lisa Kudrow has shared a surprising take about her role in Friends, claiming the viewers and Hollywood bigwigs didn’t care about her being on the show.
The 62-year-old reflected on playing Phoebe Buffay for a decade on the iconic sitcom in a recent interview with The Independent alongside Michael Patrick King, the creator of her show, The Comeback.
She claimed that when Friends blew up after its second season, she didn’t see much of a change in her professional life. “Nobody cared about me,” she said. “There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as ‘the sixth Friend.’”
King hit back at the statement, reminding Kudrow that she was the first star of Friends to win an Emmy, which she received in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
“Yeah,” she responded. “But there was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have. There was just, like, ‘boy is she lucky she got on that show.’”
It wasn’t until a few years later, when she made the Robert De Niro comedy Analyze This, about a mob boss in therapy, that “agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things,” she said.
“I knew that wasn’t gonna work. I’m just not adorable!”
From 1994 to 2004, Kudrow starred as Phoebe on Friends, portraying the eccentric friend known for her unpredictable behavior and quirky musical performances. The show’s ensemble also included Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.
Kudrow has often spoken about her time on the show and how much Phoebe meant to her.
“In 1994, it was like, ‘I love her. She’s such a ditz.’ And it’s like, yeah, okay, that was what a ditz was to us. Someone who wasn’t toeing the line,” she told Lily Tomlin during a conversation for Interview Magazine, published last month. “But she wasn’t stupid.”
“At first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do,” Kudrow added. “Not in an irritating way — it was fun. Over the course of 10 years, a little bit of her came into me. I lightened up a little more and read some books on spirituality and things, just to try to understand her.”
Elsewhere in her interview with The Independent, Kudrow recalled how impressed fans were with Friends when it came out.
“I remember everyone going oooooh,” she said. “Everyone but me, anyway. I was the odd one out. I thought… maybe? I mean, it’s a good show, but I don’t know about that. But I’m just that kind of person.”
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