For some actors like Lisa Kudrow, shaking off their famous roles is no small feat.
The Friends star is obviously best known for portraying the eccentric Phoebe Buffay on the cult sitcom, and it's often people's first thought when they meet her. You may be glad to know, though, that it's not just random fans on the street who get a little mixed up between TV and real life; it can even happen to Academy Award winner Sandra Bullock.
During her recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live, guest host Anthony Anderson cut straight to the chase with his first question: "How often do people call you Phoebe?"
Immediately, Kudrow exclaimed, "Oh, my God!"
She then went into her anecdote about Bullock. "I just love this: I was at a party—a big party—and I was talking to Sandra Bullock. Name-dropping, I have to, but it's true," Kudrow said.
"And we were talking and she’s like, 'Well, I guess you’ll just have to talk to yourself, Phoebe,' about something. She called me Phoebe!"
Credit where credit is due, Kudrow continued, "But she caught herself. She went, 'What’d I just do?'"
Kudrow played Phoebe—one of the six friends on Friends—for 10 years between 1994 and 2004.
She was part of the main cast alongside Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry, who tragically passed away at the age of 54 last October.
Paying tribute to her friend in November, Kudrow wrote on Instagram, "Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you. Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew."
The actress was on Jimmy Kimmel Live to promote her newest project, a TV show titled Time Bandits, which premieres on Apple TV+ on July 24.
While promoting the new show recently, Kudrow clarified Jennifer Aniston's claim that she hated the audience laughter while filming Friends. "It irritated me if they would laugh for too long," she told Entertainment Tonight. "God bless 'em, they were so excited to be there that sometimes the laughter would just be longer than they would have laughed at anything else."
I'm sad to say that would absolutely be me if I somehow traveled in time (like in Time Bandits!) and got to watch a live taping of Friends. Can you imagine???
