Lisa Kudrow has shared a sweet insight into her friendship with her former co-star Matt LeBlanc.
Lisa and Matt played on-screen best friends in the iconic television series Friends for over a decade.
During an appearance on Sirius XM’s Where Everybody Knows Your Name on July 31, the 61-year-old opened up about how her former costar helped her ease some anxiety about her portrayal as Phoebe Buffay during the sitcom’s early days.
In an admission to co-host Ted Danson, Lisa revealed that it took her “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!'” she recalled.
“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?”
Lisa explained that she put real “acting work” into her character, but it wasn’t until she was in her second or third season that she felt something was off.
“I’m like, ‘Something’s wrong,’ ‘cause I’m not doing the work I was doing,” she said.
“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,'” she continued.
Co-host Ted Danson noted how she finally felt relaxed with Matt’s help.
“That was enough,” Lisa admitted.
“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.'”
