Lisa Kudrow makes sad admission about her time on Friends
Lisa Kudrow gave us some of the most memorable moments as the loveable Phoebe Buffay on the smash-hit show Friends, but not all is as it seemed.
Even decades on, new fans are discovering the show and falling in love with the series, which ran from 1994 to 2004.
She even won an Emmy Award for her role as the adorable (but incredibly loyal) friend in 1998, as an Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
The show acted as a springboard for the cast, with Jennifer Aniston finding the biggest success after the show finished, becoming a bona fide Hollywood A-lister.
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Now 62, Kudrow has revealed that despite the sitcom's enormous success, the attention and adoration were by no means equal.
In a new interview with The Independent, the star shared how she really felt at what should have been the happiest time of her life.
She confessed that 'nobody cared about me' even during the show's height.
“There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as ‘the sixth Friend," she recalled.
Kudrow said expectations of her were low for her potential after the show finished, too.
The star said 'there was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have.'
'There was just, like, "Boy, is she lucky she got on that show," ' Kudrow explained.
Despite this negativity, she went on to avoid being typecast in the comedy roles and found success in various projects.
She credits one movie in particular with changing the perception of her, 1999’s Analyze This, which also starred Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
She said 'the agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things.'
The star also told Today that because of her friends fame she 'got to create my own shows that didn't have to be as big as Friends, so I could do something like The Comeback or Web Therapy, and that was really fulfilling.'
Kudrow also hit back at the perception of Phoebe as 'ditzy'.
She told Interview Magazine: “At the time, it was like, 'She’s such a ditz. How is it that you only play ditzes?' And I thought, 'Is she a ditz?' To me, she wasn’t."
That feeling of being an outsider is something that has followed Kudrow all her life: “I wasn’t ever in the popular group. I had friends, so I was always fine.”
“Actually, apart from a moment in junior high where I had zero friends. But I eventually had friends," so it all worked out alright in the end.
Topics: Entertainment, Celebrity, Friends, TV And Film
Jen Thomas