Entertainment
Lisa Kudrow Reveals The Sweet Advice Matt LeBlanc Gave Her On Friends
“I was getting really mad at myself.”
Matt LeBlanc was there for Lisa Kudrow on the set of Friends. Speaking on Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, the actor recalled doubting her portrayal of Phoebe Buffay during the sitcom’s early years. However, her co-star LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani on the show, had some sound advice.
“I’m doing it and I’m like, ‘Something’s wrong,’ ’cause I’m not doing the work I was doing. I’m slacking off. I’m being lazy and I was getting really mad at myself,” Kudrow recalled, revealing that LeBlanc noticed she was struggling and gave her some much-needed words of encouragement.
“He said, ‘What’s going on with you?’ I said, ‘I’m being lazy. I’m not doing the work that I did first season, second season. I’m not doing the work I did for Phoebe, so it can’t be good,’” the actor continued. “He went, ‘No, you know who the character is now. You don’t need to do the work you did. You got it,’ and I went, ‘What? Oh.’”
LeBlanc was right. Despite her tough filming days, Kudrow became the first of her castmates to win an Emmy for her performance in Friends, when she took home the award for outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series in 1998.
Kudrow and LeBlanc starred on Friends for 10 seasons (1994-2004) alongside their co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, and the late Matthew Perry, who died at the age of 54 in October 2023. They famously became the highest-paid actors on TV during their run, not to mention household names.
Dealing With Friends Fame
Kudrow also discussed finding fame on the hit sitcom, revealing on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast that she would “downplay” her success and surround herself with family. “They keep me in check,” she added. “That was good, and I have a child. That’s the priority.”
However, the actor did acknowledge that she could “go a little too far” with portraying Friends as not being “important at all,” as it meant a lot to fans during an especially challenging time.
“After 9/11 happened, I was driving home from work ... someone in the car next to me might look over and go, ‘Ah,’ and wave or something,” she recalled. “They just looked exhausted and tired and just went, ‘Thank you,’ and it almost made me cry and that’s where it hit me. ‘Oh no. We are actually providing a service, like a mental health service.’”
This isn’t the first time Kudrow has reminisced about her Friends days. The actor recently revealed that she’s been rewatching the award-winning sitcom in honor of her late co-star Perry, and disclosed that one classic scene was actually improvised.
