Like so many fans, Lisa Kudrow is rewatching Friends — but unlike many of them, it's not part of her daily life. Kudrow recently revealed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that she started revisiting the hit sitcom to honor her late co-star Matthew Perry, who played Phoebe Buffay on the show for 10 seasons. .
"I couldn't watch it because I was too embarrassed to watch myself. But if I wrote it about Matthew, that would be okay," she explained. “It’s just a celebration of how hilarious he was — that’s what I want to remember (about him).”
Kudrow added that she has been "laughing out loud" while rewatching the show, which aired from 1994 to 2004. "Everyone is hilarious," she said of Friends co-stars Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. ".
"Obviously, Matthew is hilarious," she continued. "No one knew that rhythm or comedic rhythm before him."
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kudrow also admitted that she laughed at her own scenes and said she would rewatch the show to commemorate the Friends milestone.
"I mean, it's my own little way of celebrating [the anniversary], just watching," she said. "But it's awkward. At home, if someone walked into the room and I was watching Friends , I guess that would look scary, wouldn't it?"
Perry, who played Chandler Bing in "Friends, " died in October 2023 at the age of 54. His former costars paid tribute to the actor in a joint statement at the time, calling his death an "incalculable loss."
Kudrow later paid her personal tribute to Perry. She wrote on Instagram: "Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said that my muscles are sore and tears are streaming down my face every day."
Perry, who referenced Perry's substance abuse in her 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and Big Scary Things , added, "Thank you for showing up to work when you were not well and then being awesome. "
Kudrow used to avoid friends
While Kudrow now loves revisiting the hit sitcom, in the past she actively avoided reruns of Friends . "I wouldn't watch it if it aired," she told Entertainment Tonight in 2019. "I might not like myself [on the show], so I don't want to take the chance."
