{"id":519023,"date":"2026-04-08T06:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/519023\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T06:26:09","slug":"lisa-kudrow-says-no-one-cared-about-her-being-on-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/519023\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow says \u2018no one cared\u2019 about her being on Friends"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lisa Kudrow<\/a> has shared a surprising take about her role in Friends,<\/a> claiming the viewers and Hollywood bigwigs didn\u2019t care about her being on the show.<\/p>\n

The 62-year-old reflected on playing Phoebe Buffay for a decade on the iconic sitcom<\/a> in a recent interview with The Independent<\/a> alongside Michael Patrick King, the creator of her show, The Comeback.<\/p>\n

She claimed that when Friends<\/a> blew up after its second season, she didn\u2019t see much of a change in her professional life. \u201cNobody cared about me,\u201d she said. \u201cThere were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as \u2018the sixth Friend.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

King hit back at the statement, reminding Kudrow that she was the first star of Friends to win an Emmy, which she received in 1998 for Outstanding Supporting Actress.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d she responded. \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<\/p>\n

\"Lisa<\/p>\n

Lisa Kudrow says there was \u2018no vision\u2019 for her future acting career when she was on \u2018Friends\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until a few years later, when she made the Robert De Niro comedy Analyze This, about a mob boss in therapy, that \u201cagents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that wasn\u2019t gonna work. I\u2019m just not adorable!\u201d<\/p>\n

From 1994 to 2004, Kudrow starred as Phoebe on Friends, portraying the eccentric friend known for her unpredictable behavior and quirky musical performances. The show\u2019s ensemble also included Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.<\/p>\n

\"Lisa<\/p>\n

Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe Buffay in \u2018Friends\u2019 from 1994 to 2004 (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Kudrow has often spoken about her time on the show <\/a>and how much Phoebe meant to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1994, it was like, \u2018I love her. She\u2019s such a ditz.\u2019 And it\u2019s like, yeah, okay, that was what a ditz was to us. Someone who wasn\u2019t toeing the line,\u201d she told Lily Tomlin during a conversation for Interview Magazine<\/a>, published last month. \u201cBut she wasn\u2019t stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do,\u201d Kudrow added. \u201cNot in an irritating way \u2014 it was fun. Over the course of 10 years, a little bit of her came into me. I lightened up a little more and read some books on spirituality and things, just to try to understand her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in her interview with The Independent, Kudrow recalled how impressed fans were with Friends when it came out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember everyone going oooooh,\u201d she said. \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. But I\u2019m just that kind of person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow has shared a surprising take about her role in Friends, claiming the viewers and Hollywood bigwigs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[96,5934,120004,11895,179830,391,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-519023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-friends","10":"tag-lisa-kudrow","11":"tag-michael-patrick-king","12":"tag-phoebe-buffay","13":"tag-tv","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}