When Lisa Kudrow began working on Friends, she found that getting to know her fellow cast members was surprisingly stress-free. Starting a new job can often be nerve-wracking, especially when it comes to forming relationships with colleagues. However, in Kudrow’s case, her experience was quite the opposite.
The actress, 61, landed the role of kooky Phoebe Buffay in the era-defining sitcom back in 1994, and was nervous about being accepted by both the cast and crew. However, in a Monday, December 9, interview with Dax Shepard on his “Armchair Expert” podcast, she said her costars worked hard at bonding and soon became as close as the iconic characters they were portraying.
“It was great, we really did get along,” she said. “We also worked really hard at being friends. That six-way relationship took some work and we did it.”
Kudrow said it helped that some of her costars were already expert communicators, citing Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc as the glue that held the tight-knit gang together by always talking things through to clear any tension.
“If someone said something or did something, it didn’t get too big, because it was, ‘Can I talk to you?’ — usually not me, because I had to learn to be, ‘Can I talk to you about something?’ because I never knew that was allowed!” she said. “But I saw it modeled really well by Courteney and Jennifer and Matt. Respectful communication.”
Kudrow also revealed on the podcast that when she first shot the pilot of the multiple award-winning sitcom, she was paranoid that director James Burrows didn’t actually want her character to work out. “One of the issues with the character was, how do we let the audience know why they’re friends with her, because she’s so different!” she recalled.
Ultimately, Phoebe was, of course, a huge hit, both on set with the cast and crew and with the show’s many millions of viewers — in fact, the show was a much bigger success than Kudrow could ever have imagined. “Here’s what a bad judge of whether a show’s going to be successful or not,” she laughed. “I was like, ‘It’s cute?’ I was just glad it was on NBC!”
Kudrow added that she doesn’t mind talking about Friends as much as people inevitably want her to because she’s so “grateful” for the experience of being a pivotal part of one of the biggest shows in history.
In the interview, Kudrow also spoke briefly about the death of her beloved costar Matthew Perry in 2023. “This will sound odd. I’m more comforted that he was happy the day he died,” she admitted. “He got to die happy. And to me, that was a gift.”
