Lisa Kudrow is opening up about how her Friends co-star Matt LeBlanc helped her shift her mindset during her time playing the iconic Phoebe Buffay.
Speaking to Parker Posey for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Kudrow revealed that early in the show's run, she found herself overthinking the role, feeling a deep need to justify every quirky line Phoebe said. "Phoebe was so far from who I was as a human being," Kudrow explained. "It was work — 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."
But everything changed when LeBlanc gave her a simple but powerful reality check. “I remember season 2 or 3, I went, ‘Oh my God, I’m not doing the work,’” she said. “And LeBlanc went, ‘What’s the matter with you? You’re her. You don’t have to.’” That moment helped Kudrow let go of the pressure she was putting on herself. “It became fun after that — because the cast had fun,” she added. “I just needed to get out of my own head.”
Kudrow admitted her biggest obstacle was her own perfectionism. “The worst thing was wanting to be a good student,” she said. “That’s what hurt me the most.”
During the same conversation, Posey suggested Kudrow should join season 4 of HBO’s The White Lotus, created by Mike White. Kudrow lit up at the idea. “Work with Mike White? Yes. I love Mike White,” she said, recalling how much she loved his 2017 film Brad’s Status, even emailing him after watching it.
While Kudrow expressed interest, she acknowledged her own hesitations about darker material. “I might not be his cup of tea,” she said. “I get nervous about inhabiting things that are too dark; I try to avoid that.”
Still, the warmth Kudrow feels for her Friends cast remains. Following the passing of co-star Matthew Perry in 2023, she began rewatching the series for the first time — not just as a walk down memory lane, but to celebrate Perry’s brilliance. “He was so hilarious,” she said.
Source: Entertainment Weekly