Lisa Kudrow has made a surprising admission about her time on one of the most successful TV shows ever, saying that during Friendsno one at her agency had any real interest in her or expectations for her career.
“No one cared about me,” the 62-year-old said. The Independent in an interview published Saturday April 4.
“There were certain parts of [my talent agency] it simply called me “the sixth Friend.”
She added that “there was no vision for me, nor any expectation of what kind of career I could have.”
The attitude she encountered, she recalls, was essentially, “Boy, is she lucky to have been on this show.”
It’s a striking thing 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 in a series that aired from 1994 to 2004.
But the industry’s lack of attention has had an upside.
Freed from the pressure of being packaged and pushed in a particular direction, Kudrow was able to pursue truly varied work during the period. Friends years, including 1996 Mother1997s The watchmakers and the 1999s Analyze this alongside Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal.
It was the latter film that finally turned heads.
“Agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and such,” she said.
