So many actors have that one role they’ll never get away from, and for the six stars of the ensemble comedy Friends, that’s the case for all of them. Even as Lisa Kudrow does promotion for The Comeback, which is airing on the 2026 TV schedule, she’s fielding questions about the sitcom that debuted more than 30 years ago. It turns out, though, that’s not a problem, and Kudrow explained why she’s always happy to talk about Friends.
Lisa Kudrow, of course, played Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons of one of the best sitcoms of all time but, even now, as she’s wrapping her arc as Valerie Cherish on the third and final season of HBO’s The Comeback, she doesn’t mind sharing her updated opinion on whether Ross and Rachel were on a break or discussing why it’s better that Phoebe was bad at playing guitar. Kudrow told CBS Sunday Morning:
I mean, I never went through that period of, ‘No, no, I don’t want to talk about Friends. I have to move on, and I want to play other characters and, no, you have to know me from’ — no, no, that’s fine.
It’s not rare to see actors jump into a wildly different role after a big project in hopes of not getting typecast as one specific character. In fact, Jennifer Aniston did it with movies like The Good Girl and Friends with Money. Kudrow has played plenty of characters who are nothing like her role on Friends, but she said she still gets called “Phoebe” by fans and doesn’t mind if Phoebe’s hilariously offbeat quotes are the ones that stick. She explains:
Article continues belowFriends gave me everything. It just did. And I loved being Phoebe. I loved the whole experience, and I don’t need to move away from it. And I had done independent films and played different characters. And, you know, whether you’ve seen it or not, that’s fine. And it’s fine if all you know that I’ve ever done is Friends. How could I not be OK with that?
Opinions may vary amongst the other Friends stars on that sentiment. Jennifer Aniston admitted the love/hate aspect of the show being a “lifetime commitment.” David Schwimmer has said he got really sick of hearing the iconic theme song for a while, and Matthew Perry even addressed the issue before his death, writing that he didn’t want to just be remembered as Chandler Bing.
We can’t know what Lisa Kudrow’s career would look like today without Friends, but it’s pretty safe to say that Valerie Cherish wouldn’t exist. Kudrow’s character on The Comeback is an actor trying to stay relevant (in the cringiest of ways) after her long run as the star of a hit sitcom comes to an end. The series premiered in 2005 — just a year after Friends’ finale.
I definitely understand actors getting frustrated when one project continues to outshine others that came after, but as a huge Friends fan, I’m also grateful when Lisa Kudrow and the others are willing to talk about it.
You can stream all 10 seasons of Friends with an HBO Max subscription. That’s also where you can stream The Comeback, which airs on HBO at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays.
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