Lisa Kudrow has made a surprising admission about her time on one of the most successful television shows ever made, saying that during Friendsno one at her agency had any real interest in her or expectations for her career.
“Nobody cared about me,” the 62-year-old said. the independent in an interview published on Saturday, April 4.
“There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that simply referred to me as ‘the sixth friend.'”
He added that “there was no vision for me or expectations about the kind of career I could have.”
The attitude he encountered, he recalled, was essentially: “Wow, you’re lucky you were on that show.”
It’s surprising to hear from someone who won an Emmy for the role in 1998 and spent a decade playing Phoebe Buffay alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry on a show that aired from 1994 to 2004.
But the industry’s lack of attention had a silver lining.
Freed from the pressure of being packaged and pushed in a particular direction, Kudrow was able to pursue a number of genuinely varied jobs during the Friends years, including 1996 Mother1997 Watchers of the clock and 1999 Analyze this alongside Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
It was this last film that finally caught the attention.
“Agents and businessmen started circling, wanting to cast me in romantic comedies and stuff like that,” he said.
