Lisa Kudrow says she was called 'the sixth Friend': 'Nobody cared about me'
Lisa Kudrow says she was called 'the sixth Friend': 'Nobody cared about me'
Shania RussellMon, April 6, 2026 at 4:48 PM UTC
0
Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay on 'Friends'Credit: Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Friends may have been a massive success, but that doesn't mean its impact was immediate. At least not for Lisa Kudrow.
The Friends star, who spent 10 seasons as the quirky and unconventional Phoebe Buffay, recently admitted to feeling overlooked as a member of the ensemble cast. While reflecting on the experience to The Independent in a Saturday interview, Kudrow said that though the show became a massive hit during its second season, she didn't notice any tangible change in her career prospects.
"Nobody cared about me," she told the outlet. "There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as 'the sixth Friend.'"
She continued, "There was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have."
Instead, Kudrow recalled praise going to the show itself with little regard for her contributions. "There was just, like, ‘boy, is she lucky she got on that show.'"
The cast of 'Friends' in 1994Credit: Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
That was by no means the universal experience: as Friends has persisted, plenty of people now consider Phoebe one of the show's standouts. This was also true during the sitcom's run. As it grew in popularity, Kudrow ultimately became the first Friend to win an Emmy, snagging Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 1998.
As for her career, the show's consistency allowed her the freedom to take on a variety of roles — including the Albert Brooks-helmed comedy Mother, 1997’s Clockwatchers, and the 1999 crime-comedy Analyze This. The latter title, which saw her share the screen with Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal, prompted "the agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things."
Advertisement
But the success of Friends did present one challenge for Kudrow's career. After NBC agreed to pay the cast members a then-unprecedented $1 million an episode, a narrative emerged that Kudrow was the one who urged her cast members to negotiate as a collective rather than as individuals.
"I absolutely was not the ringleader," Kudrow said. "And that was reported, and it wasn’t true. My team were very angry about that. It was leaked sort of as a warning to other clients like, 'don’t do something like that.'"
Lisa KudrowCredit: Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
At the time, Kudrow figured the rumors would be a positive for her. "Like, 'hey, people will think I’m really smart!'" she recalled. "But my team were like, 'No, this is not good! We’re furious that they’re saying this about you.'"
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
In the end, Friends was a career-defining project for Kudrow and her costars, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry.
In 2024, Kudrow said as much, telling Today that the sitcom's success opened the door for her to pursue various passion projects.
"Because I was on Friends, I got to create my own shows that didn't have to be as big as Friends," she explained. "So I could do something like The Comeback or Web Therapy, and that was really fulfilling."
on Entertainment Weekly
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
