Lisa Kudrow opens up on the challenges she faced playing Phoebe Buffay in FRIENDS

It's safe to say that Phoebe Buffay was one of the best things about Friends. She was chaos wrapped in kindness, a little broken, wildly weird, and fiercely real. With her offbeat songs, thrifty fashion, and profound life lessons, Phoebe became the heartbeat for anyone who ever felt like they didn’t quite fit in. She was the weird friend we all secretly wanted to be.

But behind that goofy smile and eccentric charm, Lisa Kudrow faced quite a few challenges while diving into the character. Playing Phoebe meant diving into a mix of pain, hope, and raw awkwardness without turning her into a joke. Lisa Kudrow is now opening up on how playing Phoebe came with her own set of challenges and how one Friends co-star helped her out of this distress.

Speaking to Parker Posey for Variety’s Actors On Actors, Kudrow said,

“Me being Phoebe was so far from who I was as a human being that it was work. I needed to justify everything she was saying in my head so that it felt like she meant it and it was real to her. It was a lot of work."

She then added how Matt LeBlanc helped her out in the initial seasons to step into the character, as she added,

“And I remember like season two or three, and I was just doing it, and went, ‘Oh my god, I’m not doing the work. I don’t know if this is going as well. I’m not doing the work’ I was really fretting over it. And (Matt) LeBlanc went, ‘What’s the matter with you?’. I said, ‘I’m not doing the work that I did. I used to like really work, and he said, ‘You’re her. You don’t have to do it anymore’.”

Phoebe Buffay was undoubtedly one of the best things in Friends

Phoebe Buffay was the wild, unpredictable spark that shook Friends out of its usual rhythm. She wasn’t just the quirky girl with a guitar and the infamous Smelly Cat song; oftentimes, she was at the heart of several eccentric storylines. Part street-smart survivor who’d seen the worst, part dreamy optimist floating on her own weird wavelength, and part unapologetic oddball who turned being different into a superpower, Phoebe brought a raw, untamed heart to Friends, reminding everyone that life’s messy edges are where the real magic hides.

Trending

Most of it was possible because of Kudrow's brilliant acting skills and how she stepped into the character so well. It wasn’t about just being funny; it was about showing the messy, complicated layers beneath the weirdness. Kudrow had to hold all that vulnerability and insanity at once, making Phoebe not just memorable but painfully human. And that? That’s no small feat.

Friends is available to stream on Netflix.

×

Was this article helpful?

Thank You for feedback