Lisa Kudrow has spoken about what she describes as “mean stuff” that took place behind the scenes of Friends, including sexual remarks made by male writers about her co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox.
In an interview with The Times, published on 23 April, Kudrow – who played Phoebe Buffay across all ten series of the NBC sitcom – gave her assessment of the culture that existed in the show’s writers’ room during its run from 1994 to 2004.
“There was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” Kudrow told The Times. “Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response they could be like, ‘Can’t the [expletive] read? She’s not even trying. She [expletive] up my line.’”
Sexual remarks, late nights, verbal abuse: Lisa Kudrow lifts the lid on Friends behind the scenes
Kudrow also said that she and her castmates were aware “that back in the room the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney. It was intense.”
Despite this, Kudrow said she adopted a position of tolerance towards the writers’ conduct, pointing to the demands placed on them by the production.
[The writers] “could be brutal, but these guys – and it was mostly men in there – were sitting up until 3 a.m. trying to write the show so my attitude was, ‘Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matterr.’”
This is not the first time the conduct of the Friends writers’ room has come under scrutiny. In 2004, former writers’ assistant Amaani Lyle brought a suit against Warner Bros. Television, alleging that she had been subjected to sexual and racial harassment by the series’ writers, who regularly made remarks and gestures of an obscene nature.
The California Supreme Court ruled against Lyle, finding unanimously that vulgar and coarse humour can be a necessary part of a creative workplace.
Kudrow has been among the most forthcoming of the Friends cast in speaking about the experience of making the show.
In 2024, she confirmed that the six lead actors – Kudrow, Aniston, Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer – were friends off screen as well, though she noted that “that six-way relationship took some work.”
Earlier this month, Kudrow spoke about feeling neglected – not by her castmates or the Friends creative team, but by her own management.
“Nobody cared about me,” she said, adding that parts of her talent agency “just referred to me as ‘the sixth Friend’. There was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have.”
Friends ran for ten series on NBC, concluding in 2004. Both Kudrow and Aniston received Emmy Awards for their performances during the show’s run. Kudrow has since starred in The Comeback, a series she also writes and produces.
