{"id":422456,"date":"2026-04-28T23:43:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T23:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422456\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T23:43:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T23:43:12","slug":"lisa-kudrow-divulges-staggering-amount-friends-cast-still-makes-on-residuals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/422456\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow divulges staggering amount ‘Friends’ cast still makes on residuals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisa Kudrow has revealed that she and her fellow \u201cFriends\u201d co-stars still earn a whopping $20 million in residuals<\/a> every year, more than two decades after the hit sitcom came to an end.<\/p>\n

The Emmy-winning actress divulged the staggering amount she and the cast still earn from \u201cFriends\u201d while reflecting on the iconic show in an interview published by the Times of London<\/a> last Thursday.<\/p>\n

Kudrow, who played the eccentric and kind-hearted Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, told the outlet that she rewatched the long-running NBC sitcom<\/a> following co-star Matthew Perry\u2019s tragic passing in 2023<\/a> at 54.<\/p>\n

Lisa Kudrow (pictured here during an HBO event in London last month) revealed that she and her \u201cFriends\u201d co-stars still earn $20 million in residuals every year. WireImage<\/p>\n

The actress (seen here during an HBO event in London last month) revealed the surprising amount she and the cast still earn from \u201cFriends\u201d while reflecting on the show in an interview published last Thursday. Alan Chapman\/Dave Benett\/WireImage<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter Matthew died, I watched the show again,\u201d the 62-year-old shared. \u201cBefore, I only saw what I did wrong or could have done better. But for the first time, I truly appreciated just how great it was.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cBecause there was a genius at work. And whatever any of us do in the future, we will never experience something like that again.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Kudrow \u201cfelt [she] did OK\u201d as Phoebe, she praised Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox\u2019s \u201camazing\u201d portrayals of Rachel Green and Monica Geller.<\/p>\n

She also gushed about David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc\u2019s hilarious work as Ross Geller and Joey Tribbiani, respectively \u2014 before acknowledging that Perry \u201cwas just beyond [them] all\u201d as the witty and often sarcastic Chandler Bing.<\/p>\n

Kudrow (pictured here in 1994) played Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons of \u201cFriends\u201d from 1994 to 2004. \u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Kudrow gushed about \u201cFriends\u201d co-stars Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry and Courteney Cox (seen here together in an episode from Season 10) during her new interview. \u00a9Warner Bros\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

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While Kudrow recognized that \u201cFriends\u201d depicted \u201ca kind of innocence that maybe a younger generation has never gotten to experience,\u201d she revealed that \u201cthere was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes\u201d of the show.<\/p>\n

Although the six co-stars were all friends in real life, and famously went from earning $22,500 per episode during Season 1 to $1 million per episode during Seasons 9 and 10, they still butted heads with the show\u2019s writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers\u2019 lines or it didn\u2019t get the perfect response, they could be like, \u2018Can\u2019t the bitch f\u2013king read? She\u2019s not even trying. She f\u2013ked up my line,’\u201d Kudrow explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we know that back in the room, the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney,\u201d she added. \u201cIt was intense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kudrow and the \u201cFriends\u201d cast (pictured here together in 1994) famously went from earning $22,500 per episode during Season 1 to $1 million per episode during Seasons 9 and 10. \u00a9NBC\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a genius at work,\u201d Kudrow said of the hit sitcom. \u201cAnd whatever any of us do in the future, we will never experience something like that again.\u201d Everett Collection \/ Everett Collection<\/p>\n

But the alleged \u201csexual fantasies about\u201d Aniston and Cox<\/a> didn\u2019t go unnoticed, because former \u201cFriends\u201d assistant Amaani Lyle filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Warner Bros. Television over the purported remarks in 2004.<\/p>\n

Lyle ultimately lost the case, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it could be brutal, but these guys \u2014 and it was mostly men in there \u2014 were sitting up until 3 a.m. trying to write the show,\u201d Kudrow said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo my attitude was, \u2018Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn\u2019t matter,’\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Kudrow also touched upon allegations that the sitcom\u2019s writers would discuss their \u201csexual fantasies about\u201d Aniston and Cox (pictured here with Kudrow in January 2020) behind the scenes of \u201cFriends.\u201d jenniferaniston\/Instagram<\/p>\n

Kudrow (seen here with Aniston and Cox in February 2023) said she \u201cwill never say anything bad about\u00a0\u2018Friends’\u201d\u00a0because the sitcom is \u201cstill incredible work\u201d more than 20 years after ending. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Page Six has reached out to reps for Aniston, Cox and co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane for comment.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Kudrow said she \u201cwill never say anything bad about\u00a0\u2018Friends’\u201d\u00a0because the sitcom is \u201cstill incredible work\u201d 22 years after ending. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are plenty of shows with big-name comedians from that time, and they are not funny, but\u00a0\u2018Friends\u2019\u00a0is,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow has revealed that she and her fellow \u201cFriends\u201d co-stars still earn a whopping $20 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,922,148938,166412,93,25027,61,60,10696,33663,33664,33662,282],"class_list":["post-422456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrity-news","tag-courtney-cox","tag-david-schwimmer","tag-entertainment","tag-friends","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jennifer-aniston","tag-lisa-kudrow","tag-matt-leblanc","tag-matthew-perry","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}