Lisa Kudrow had to put “a lot of work” into the early days of ‘Friends’.
Lisa Kudrow struggled with her character in the early days of friends
The 61-year-old actress became known around the world for starring as kooky singer Phoebe Buffay in the 1990s sitcom alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer but admitted it took her a couple of seasons to really settle into the character.
Speaking on the SiriusXM show ‘Where Everybody Knows Your Name’, she said: “[It was] if not a year and a half, maybe two seasons, before I felt like I had Phoebe down.
“The things she said were so outrageously illogical that in order for me to justify them, you know, I felt like ‘Oof!
“It just took a lot of work to figure out.
“’All right, how is it possible that I think this is true or a good idea or a reasonable thing to say?’ I’m like, ‘Something’s wrong,’ ‘cause I’m not doing the work I was doing,”
The ‘Better Nate Than Ever’ star even thought she was being “lazy” by the time the second year came around until her co-star Matt – who played Joey Tribbiani – gave her some advice.
She added: “I’m slacking off. I’m being lazy and I was getting really mad at myself, and LeBlanc came. He said, ‘What’s going on with you?’ I said, ‘I’m being lazy. I’m not doing the work that I did first season, second season. I’m not doing the work I did for Phoebe, so it can’t be good.
“And he went, ‘No, you know who the character is now. You don’t need to do the work you did. You got it,” and I went, ‘What? Oh’.
“That was enough.
“It’s sort of like someone shook me ‘cause I was getting hysterical. I wasn’t literally getting hysterical, but you know like if you’re getting hysterical, someone slaps you back. You’re like, ‘Oh, thanks. That’s what I needed.”
