{"id":363046,"date":"2026-04-04T06:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363046\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:10:11","slug":"lisa-kudrow-they-wanted-to-put-me-in-romantic-comedies-but-im-just-not-adorable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/363046\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow: \u2018They wanted to put me in romantic comedies \u2013 but I\u2019m just not adorable!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In the summer of 1994, six struggling actors, all of whom had bounced around the fringes of TV comedy in the years prior, were flown on a private plane to Las Vegas. The director James Burrows, a sitcom veteran with the comic instincts of a master clown and the wisdom of a prophet, sat them down inside a restaurant and shared something that instilled in them a curious mix of fear and elation. This moment, he insisted, would be the final time they\u2019d ever be able to socialise in public together without anyone noticing them<\/a>. Because once their new show hit the airwaves? The one initially titled Insomnia Cafe, then Six of One, then finally \u2013 and immortally \u2013 Friends<\/a>? Forget it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember everyone going oooooh,\u201d Lisa Kudrow<\/a> laughs \u2013 32 years, 236 episodes and roughly a thousand renditions of \u201cSmelly Cat\u201d later<\/a>. \u201cEveryone but me, anyway. I was the odd one out. I thought\u2026 maybe? I mean, it\u2019s a good show, but I don\u2019t know about that.\u201d She scrunches up her nose. \u201cBut I\u2019m just that kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The great irony of Lisa Kudrow\u2019s career is that she\u2019s long been the comic face of the cynical and unconventional while being world-famous for the total opposite: in the world of culture, Friends was, is, and will always be Coca-Cola. Or Microsoft, or Amazon, or a great big sloppy cheeseburger. We gleefully inject its shiny toxins into our veins whenever we\u2019re feeling miserable. But think about it and Phoebe Buffay, with her tragic mother, juvenile homelessness and terrible music, always had one foot outside the inner circle of Friends. \u201cYou\u2019re not related, you live far away,\u201d Rachel once told her in a fit of pique. \u201cYou lift right out!\u201d<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the rest of Kudrow\u2019s lopsided creations: the well-intentioned dippyness of second-banana Michele, from Romy and Michele\u2019s High School Reunion; the repressed melancholy of Lucia, her character in Don Roos\u2019 cult dark comedy The Opposite of Sex; the ludicrous yet endearing narcissism of Valerie Cherish, her once-faded, still-vaguely-slumming-it sitcom actor<\/a> in The Comeback<\/a>, which has just launched its third and final season. Whether she\u2019s being watched by billions \u2013 or half a dozen gays at an afters \u2013 Kudrow\u2019s always been \u201cthe other\u201d.<\/p>\n

I tell her this in a London hotel decked out in the luxe glamour of HBO Max, which has just launched in the UK<\/a>. Kudrow is perplexed, then not, then receptive. \u201cGee, I dunno\u2026 what? Because that\u2019s! A new\u2026 thought.\u201d She puts vocal emphasis in what feels like all the wrong places. It\u2019s discombobulating, then not, then hilarious. Next to her is Michael Patrick King, her Comeback co-creator and the TV showrunner we all loved for Sex and the City and whom we all wanted to pelt with tomatoes for its cursed follow-up<\/a> And Just Like That. He totally gets what I mean. \u201cLook at how many magnificent not-chosen characters Lisa has played,\u201d he says. \u201cOr don\u2019t-look-at-me characters. It\u2019s really special. And it\u2019s what\u2019s so thrilling about Valerie \u2013 we\u2019re taking the outsider and making her the main character. She\u2019s a character so outside that you can\u2019t look away.\u201d<\/p>\n

I absolutely was not the ringleader. And that was reported, and it wasn\u2019t true. My team were very angry about that<\/p>\n

Valerie was first introduced in 2005, a year after Friends went off the air. She is Kudrow\u2019s endearing, mortifying and too-eager baby, an actor with a modicum of early Nineties fame who\u2019s done everything in her power to avoid total Hollywood exile \u2013 even if that means persevering through a rolodex of humiliations in the process. In The Comeback\u2019s first season, she agreed to film a reality show all about her return to television, in the role of a fruitlessly horny, puppy-eating scold renting an apartment to a quartet of sexy singles. Kudrow gives one of TV\u2019s greatest ever performances, wearing a desperate smile as indignities rain down upon her, her desire to be seen at any cost propelling her through a series of misadventures. The show itself was mean, satirical and caustic. \u201cThe socially painful can be hilarious,\u201d King says. \u201cPeople just didn\u2019t get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wonder if that pain stems from Kudrow\u2019s own life, but I then have second thoughts. She\u2019s so sparkly. \u201cDon\u2019t worry, you\u2019re not bringing the mood down,\u201d she interrupts. \u201cYou can\u2019t help it with this show, because it\u2019s hitting on deep stuff.\u201d She thinks it\u2019s why it was met with a mixed response back in 2005. \u201cPeople were watching it covering their eyes. They\u2019d say \u2018it\u2019s so cringe\u2019. But really it\u2019s so human. It taps into all of our worst fears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hello,Hello, hello, hello: Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in the new season of \u2018The Comeback\u2019 (HBO Max)<\/p>\n

The Comeback was cancelled after its first season, the New York Times proclaiming it lacked the (wait for it) subtlety and charm of Mark Wahlberg\u2019s gorily butch Entourage<\/a>, which it followed in the HBO schedules on Sunday nights. \u201cWe had to just surrender to that decision,\u201d Kudrow says now. \u201cWe weren\u2019t going to knock on doors begging them to bring it back,\u201d King adds.<\/p>\n

But then something funny happened: The Comeback did come back. It developed a following on DVD, and renewed appreciation for its prescience. Fame was changing, shamelessness became the de facto mode of American life, and gallows comedy was suddenly king. Valerie wasn\u2019t just a character but a Cassandra. A second season arrived in 2014, and saw Valerie cast on a dark drama series about the making of the sitcom she made in season one \u2013 this was meta on meta on meta. And now, 12 years later, comes season three, with Valerie cast on the world\u2019s first sitcom written by AI. It\u2019s arguably the show\u2019s most nihilistic season yet, with Valerie grinning her way through an industry that\u2019s become increasingly tech-driven and soulless. I found it funny, but also left the eight episodes in existential despair.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s able to be funny because Valerie doesn\u2019t get existential,\u201d Kudrow says. \u201cShe doesn\u2019t take a moral stand on anything, unless she\u2019s performing a moral stand, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

Do she and King feel hopeful about the future of entertainment? Because I admit I couldn\u2019t tell. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping the existential fear of it all is theoretical as opposed to a prediction,\u201d King says. \u201cI mean, back in 2005 we thought reality TV was going to destroy all television \u2013 then we went on to have what they called the \u2018second golden age of television\u2019. So you never know how humans will shift and adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Co-creators:Co-creators: Michael Patrick King and Lisa Kudrow at the London launch of HBO Max in March (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a scene in the season three finale, though, in which an eerily upbeat studio head played by Andrew Scott tells Valerie that he\u2019s not looking to make great television, but merely \u201cgood enough television\u201d. Kudrow talks me down off the ledge. \u201cIf this will make you feel better, there have always been shows that are not great,\u201d she laughs. King agrees. \u201cBack in the olden days of TV, they had shows that were known as home runs, and shows that were secretly called \u2018base hits\u2019 behind the scenes,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were just something to fill the eight-thirty slot. Then at nine, the home run comes on.\u201d In other words, America\u2019s NBC broadcast Friends at 8pm and Seinfeld at 9pm, and something like The Single Guy, Union Square or Suddenly Susan in the middle. And who remembers them?<\/p>\n

Friends, of course, was a behemoth. But it\u2019s also a bit of an anomaly in Kudrow\u2019s life. Unlike her co-stars, who\u2019d worked as models and pop video extras (like Courteney Cox), or in dramatic theatre (like David Schwimmer), or across short runs of speedily cancelled sitcoms (like Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc), Kudrow studied biology at university and initially had her sights set on becoming an expert in cluster headaches (!) like her father, a doctor. But then she found the famed Los Angeles improv comedy troupe The Groundlings, where she impressed with eccentric sketch characters like \u201cself-serving actress on a talk show\u201d (who\u2019d eventually inspire Valerie), and \u201cairhead in the ladies\u2019 bathroom\u201d (who\u2019d eventually become Michele). She gravitated towards broad pastiche, the lonely, and the secretly sad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose parts just hit close to home,\u201d she says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t ever in the popular group. I had friends, so I was always fine.\u201d She corrects herself. \u201cActually, apart from a moment in junior high where I had zero friends. But I eventually had friends.\u201d Many of whom were, ultimately, gay men. I wonder if Kudrow has ever wondered what it is about her that appeals to gay people, or if that might feel a bit navel-gazing. \u201cNo, I have!\u201d she says. \u201cBut I ask questions about everything. I\u2019m a biology major \u2013 it\u2019s nothing but \u2018why\u2019. But honestly, I\u2019ve always felt safer when gay men were running things. And I\u2019ve always felt like gay men just get me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt goes back to the resilience of people who aren\u2019t chosen,\u201d King says. \u201cIt\u2019s very queer. It\u2019s very Lisa.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ComfortComfort food: Kudrow alongside David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc on \u2018Friends\u2019 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

When Friends blew up, early into its second season, Kudrow didn\u2019t experience much of a professional boost. \u201cNobody cared about me,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThere were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as \u2018the sixth Friend\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

King guffaws. \u201cNo way! But you were the first Friend to win an Emmy, right?\u201d (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, in 1998.)<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Kudrow shrugs. \u201cBut there was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have. There was just, like, \u2018boy is she lucky she got on that show\u2019.\u201d The silver lining to this, of course, was that she could do what she wanted outside of it. She mentions the 1996 Albert Brooks comedy Mother, in which she had a minor role. \u201cAlbert Brooks!\u201d she hoots, with pointed reverence. Then she mentions Clockwatchers, a gorgeous 1997 indie about downbeat female friends working in neighbouring office cubicles. \u201cThat was with Toni Collette and Parker Posey,\u201d she says. \u201cToni Collette and Parker Posey!\u201d she repeats, practically in capital letters. It was only a few years later that things started to shift. In 1999, she made the Robert De Niro comedy Analyze This, about a mob boss in therapy, \u201cand that\u2019s when the agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things.\u201d She screws up her face, mock-horrified. \u201cI knew that wasn\u2019t gonna work. I\u2019m just not adorable!\u201d<\/p>\n

Many will disagree, of course. But I suppose there was something formidable at times about Phoebe. Remember how much she hated Ross? Or would always threaten Chandler with physical violence? Off-camera, there was also a bit of a media narrative back then that claimed Kudrow was the ball-buster of the show \u2013 that it was her idea for all six cast members to negotiate their salaries not as individuals, but as a collective. Pay them what they\u2019re worth, they said, or they\u2019d walk. Backed into a corner, NBC eventually ponied up a then-unprecedented (and, to this day, highly rare) $1m an episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely was not the ringleader,\u201d Kudrow says. \u201cAnd that was reported, and it wasn\u2019t true. My team were very angry about that. It was leaked sort of as a warning to other clients like, \u2018don\u2019t do something like that\u2019.\u201d Kudrow thought at the time that it would probably be a good thing for her credibility. \u201cLike, \u2018hey, people will think I\u2019m really smart!\u2019. But my team were like, \u2018no this is not good! We\u2019re furious that they\u2019re saying this about you\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Misfits:Misfits: Kudrow and Mira Sorvino in the cult classic \u2018Romy and Michele\u2019s High School Reunion\u2019 (Shutterstock)<\/p>\n

Does she think the same thing would happen today? \u201cProbably,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

King thinks it definitely would. \u201cIt was a negotiation with the most powerful cast on television, and power makes its own rules,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen the power is all in the actors\u2019 hands, that\u2019s terrifying for [the studio heads].\u201d<\/p>\n

Kudrow and King don\u2019t have more plans for The Comeback, and have billed season three as its final run. \u201cLuckily, unlike Valerie, we don\u2019t have to worry about our rent,\u201d King says, \u201cso we don\u2019t have to make the show unless there\u2019s something we really want to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Kudrow at least, the show will live on in the Valerie-isms that have slipped into her day-to-day speech. Like that demonstrative way Valerie yells \u201csee!\u201d, or her vaguely insincere utterances of \u201cisn\u2019t that cute\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll hear her in my head all the time,\u201d Kudrow says, \u201cand I have to tell myself not to say some of it out loud.\u201d Often she can\u2019t help it. \u201cI did it in front of Anna Kendrick once, who turned out to be a fan,\u201d she laughs. \u201cShe was like, \u2018oh my god, that was Valerie!\u2019 I was so embarrassed. But she just slipped out like a burp, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Comeback\u2019 is streaming on HBO Max<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363047,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-363046","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363046\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}