Friends left our screens over 20 years ago, but for many of us, it still feels like yesterday. And with the 10-season sitcom still one of the most beloved of all time, the world is not over the days of Central Park, Smelly Cat and Huggsy.
This week, the show returned to the headlines, as actress Lisa Kudrow took part in Variety‘s ‘Actors on Actors’ series, opening up to Parker Posey about the golden days of Friends.
And it was her words about one particular co-star that got the world talking the most, as the 61-year-old credited actor Matt LeBlanc for looking after her on-set.
According to Kudrow, this was particularly true when at one point she struggled to get into her iconic role of Phoebe Buffay.
“Phoebe was so far from who I was as a human being, it was work,” she recalled in the interview. “I needed to justify everything she was saying in my head so that it felt like she meant it and it was real to her.
“It was a lot of work,” she continued. “I remember Season 2 or 3, I went, ‘Oh my God, I’m not doing the work. I don’t know if this is going as well. I’m not doing work.'”
Thankfully, Matt LeBLanc came to the rescue, taking Kudrow aside and asking, “What’s the matter with you?”
“I said, ‘I’m not doing the work that I did,” she recalled. “I used to like really work, and he said, ‘You’re her. You don’t have to do it anymore’.”
“That was enough,” Kudrow previously explained during an appearance on Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name. “It’s sort of like someone shook me ‘cause I was getting hysterical. I wasn’t literally getting hysterical, but you know like if you’re getting hysterical, someone slaps you back. You’re like, ‘Oh, thanks. That’s what I needed.'”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Kudrow has opened up about LeBlanc’s support in the past, revealing that he was the first person she went to when a guest star made a misogynistic comment about her looks on the Friends set.
“I rehearsed without makeup most of the week and then on show night I’m in hair and make up and I was told, “Oh wow, NOW you’re fuckable”’, Kudrow explained in the 2017 interview on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen.
And when asked if she retaliated, she replied, “I told Matt LeBlanc. He’s like a big brother.”
Well, this is lovely.