For years after “Friends”, Lisa Kudrow couldn’t bring herself to watch reruns of the beloved NBC sitcom, explaining that she didn’t want to risk disliking her performance.
But in a recent interview with “The Hollywood Reporter”, Kudrow — who became a household name in the mid-’90s as the endearing and quirky Phoebe Buffay — says she has started revisiting old “Friends” episodes, mainly to keep the memory of her late co-star Matthew Perry alive.
Perry died on October 28, 2023, at age 54 from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine, a tragedy that sent shockwaves worldwide. A criminal investigation into his death is ongoing.
“Honestly, I couldn’t watch it because it’s too embarrassing to watch yourself. But if I focus on Matthew, then that’s OK,” Kudrow tells THR. “It’s about celebrating how hilarious he was — and that’s what I want to remember.”
“Friends” premiered on September 22, 1994, to 21.5 million viewers, immediately transforming its cast — Kudrow, Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer — into global superstars. The show ran for 10 seasons and 236 episodes, and last month marked the 20-year anniversary of the series finale.
During the “Friends” reunion special, Kudrow told her former co-stars that she was struck by how funny the show was after she began catching up on it with her husband, Michel Stern — a sentiment that still stands today.
What does Kudrow see when she revisits the show now?
“I’m laughing out loud, and everyone is hilarious. I’m amazed by Courteney Cox. I’m amazed by Jen. Matthew, obviously, is uniquely hilarious. No one had that cadence or comedic rhythm before him. Matt LeBlanc is hilarious. And David Schwimmer, too. Sometimes I even laugh at what I’ve done,” Kudrow says with a self-deprecating laugh. “So yeah, that’s my way of celebrating [the anniversaries], just watching it. But it’s embarrassing. If anyone walks in while I’m watching “Friends”, that’s a horrible look, don’t you think?”
Among the many iconic moments from “Friends”, one of the funniest episodes is “The One Where Everybody Finds Out,” where the other characters discover that Chandler and Monica (Perry and Cox) have been secretly dating. Phoebe decides to mess with them by flirting with — and even trying to seduce — Chandler. While Kudrow has admitted in past interviews that she doesn’t remember certain moments from “Friends”, she recalls that it was LeBlanc who suggested Joey should unbutton Phoebe’s shirt to outsmart Chandler.
“He said, ‘We need to up the stakes.’ And I think he went, ‘What if he just [mimes unbuttoning a shirt with one hand] … and the shirt flies open?’” Kudrow recalls with a laugh. “They asked, ‘Are you OK wearing a bra?’ And I said, ‘A bra? There’s more covering than a bathing suit! It’s fine.’”
Kudrow says that the overwhelming sense of joy she felt every day with her castmates remains her fondest memory of making “Friends”: “We laughed all day long, basically, between the scenes, because these are funny people. Especially someone like Matthew, whose goal was to get as many laughs as possible in real life every day. So we were always laughing so hard that tears were flying out of our faces,” she recalls with a fond smile.
When asked how she hopes the world will remember Perry, whom she thanked in a heartfelt tribute after his passing last October, Kudrow put it simply: “I think the world is remembering him the way he wanted to be remembered. I think that’s happening [already].”
