Lisa Kudrow has reflected on how Matt LeBlanc boosted her confidence in the early days of making Friends.
During an appearance on the Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast on Wednesday, the actress told host Ted Danson she was anxious over her portrayal of "quirky" Phoebe Buffay during the first season of the hit '90s sitcom.
"(It took) a year and a half, maybe two seasons, before I felt like I had Phoebe down," she confessed. "The things (Phoebe) said were so outrageously illogical that in order for me to justify them, you know, I felt like 'Ooof!' 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 went on to share how she did a lot of "acting work" in the early days of developing Phoebe. However, in the second or third season, she feared she was "being lazy".
"I'm like, 'Something's wrong,' 'cause I'm not doing the work I was doing," the 61-year-old recounted. "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. "That was enough. 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.'"
Ted pointed out that Matt helped Lisa finally feel "relaxed" on the set of Friends, which also starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer. The show ran for 10 seasons from 1994 until 2004.
Lisa is currently promoting the Apple TV+ series Time Bandits.
