{"id":642812,"date":"2026-08-18T02:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642812\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T02:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T02:26:13","slug":"lisa-kudrow-on-watching-friends-romy-michele-sequel-the-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/642812\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow on Watching Friends, Romy & Michele Sequel, The Comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tLisa Kudrow<\/a> is one of the most beloved TV actresses of the past 40 years. She is, of course, best known for playing, from 1994 through 2004, Phoebe Buffay, a New Age guitar-playing masseuse, on NBC\u2019s Friends<\/a>, which the New York Times has suggested \u201cmight be the best-liked sitcom ever,\u201d and for which, in 1998, she became the first of the show\u2019s core sextet to win an Emmy. But she has also done extensive and acclaimed work outside of that show, perhaps more so than any of her Friends costars.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, Kudrow was also memorable before Friends \u2014 and even for a while overlapping with it \u2014 on another staple of NBC\u2019s \u2018Must-See TV\u2019 era, Mad About You. During the run of Friends, she was part of a range of well-received films, from big studio projects like 1997\u2019s Romy and Michele\u2019s High School Reunion and 1999\u2019s Analyze This to low-budget indies such as 1997\u2019s Clockwatchers and 1998\u2019s The Opposite of Sex. And since the end of Friends, she has done perhaps her best work yet as a co-creator (with Michael Patrick King<\/a>), writer, executive producer and star of the HBO comedy series The Comeback<\/a>, a show about Valerie Cherish, a former sitcom actress who is desperate to remain relevant.<\/p>\n

\n\tKudrow\u2019s work on The Comeback \u2014 which dropped its three seasons in 2005, 2014 and 2026, respectively\u00a0\u2014 has been described by the New Yorker as her \u201cfinest creation\u201d; by the New York Times as \u201ca character for the ages\u201d and \u201ca brilliant performance\u201d; by the Independent as \u201cone of TV\u2019s greatest ever performances\u201d; by Vulture as \u201can all-time television performance\u201d; and by NPR as \u201cperhaps the greatest comedic character study of the 21st century.\u201d It brought her best actress in a comedy series Emmy nominations for the show\u2019s first two seasons, and now, for its third, she is Emmy-nominated for both best actress in a comedy series and, with King, for best writing for a comedy series. (This year\u2019s noms bring her career tally to 17.)<\/p>\n

\n\tOver the course of a conversation at the Los Angeles offices of The Hollywood Reporter, the 63-year-old reflected on what led her to the Groundlings improv school and troupe, and how that shaped much of the rest of her career, including the parts she went on to play in Romy & Michele\u2019s High School Reunion and The Comeback; how a firing from the pilot of NBC\u2019s Frasier and humbling herself to take a small part on Mad About You ended up paving the way for her association with Friends; why her rollercoaster journey with The Comeback is, in some ways, \u201cthe highlight\u201d of her career; plus more.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou can listen to the full conversation via the audio player above or read a few excerpts of it \u2014 lightly edited for clarity and brevity \u2014 below.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her looks\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI didn\u2019t look like women who were getting cast as series regulars on sitcoms. They still wanted a certain look \u2014 very pretty and appealing and all of that \u2014 and not that funny, right, except for Shelley Long\u2026 I was told, \u2018It\u2019s very hard because you\u2019re not gorgeous, and they want gorgeous.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay\u2019\u2026 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s ridiculous. I got it. Also, it\u2019s not just how you look; it\u2019s how you act, too. I\u2019m not \u2018cute.\u2019 And God, I didn\u2019t want to be cute.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn her early interest in playing Rachel \u2014 the part that Jennifer Aniston ultimately played\u00a0\u2014 on Friends\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIdiot that I am, I went, \u2018Oh, but you know what? I got to say, Rachel is Jewish. And boy, I love doing a Jewish American Princess. I think I could make that really funny.\u2019 Not even clocking that, \u2018Oh no, this is the romantic lead to Ross.\u2019 Right? I told my agents, \u2018I can do Jewish American Princess and make that really funny.\u2019 And so they said, \u2018Uh-huh. All right. Well, we\u2019ll tell them [the show\u2019s creators].\u2019 They [later] went, \u2018No, no. It\u2019s so hard for them to find Phoebe. They\u2019re not messing with that.\u2019 So that was the sweet way of saying, \u2018Yeah, you are not the romantic interest.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the idea that resulted in The Comeback being revived for a third and final season, 12 years after season two and 21 years after season one\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMichael had this idea. It was so good: She\u2019s finally the lead, offered the leading role in a multi-camera show\u00a0\u2014\u00a0except it\u2019s the first one written by AI. And I went, \u2018Oh yeah.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn where The Comeback fits in the context of her whole career\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s a highlight, and in some ways, the highlight. I mean, I hadn\u2019t written anything before. And then to be acknowledged, holy cow, by your peers, that this is writing that\u2019s worthy of recognition? That made me cry. I mean, I was thrilled for the acting nomination, but that one really made me cry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the forthcoming sequel to Romy & Michele\u2019s High School Reunion\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt felt fun. I don\u2019t know. I trust the director a lot. Tim Federle is directing this one.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn going back, after Matthew Perry\u2019s sudden death<\/strong>, and watching Friends for the first time since making it\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt was great watching it. It became my right-before-bedtime laugh or two. I watch sitcoms before going to bed \u2014\u00a0I just want to laugh before going to bed. Some things were like, \u2018Oh, I remember that,\u2019 but a lot of it I don\u2019t remember and it was like watching it for the first time \u2014\u00a0I mean, especially scenes that Phoebe wasn\u2019t in, because I hadn\u2019t seen that \u2014 and boy, everyone was good! I was just talking to [David] Schwimmer two days ago and saying, \u2018God\u2014\u2019 Well, first I had to say sorry, because on Jimmy Fallon I\u2019d said, \u2018Ross was a terrible boyfriend!\u2019 And he just laughed and said, \u2018That\u2019s all right.\u2019 He hasn\u2019t really watched it either, and I said, \u2018It\u2019s so fun. Everyone is so good!’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow is one of the most beloved TV actresses of the past 40 years. She is, of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":642813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[162187,94268,18,117,1330,19,17,57616,2694,133715,128],"class_list":["post-642812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-awards-chatter","tag-awards-chatter-podcast","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-friends","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lisa-kudrow","tag-michael-patrick-king","tag-the-comeback","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/642813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}