Lisa Kudrow talks about landing her role in Friends ( Photo Credit – Instagram )
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Lisa Kudrow is reflecting on her television career as she recently opened up about her “devastating” experience of getting fired from Frasier before landing her iconic role of Phoebe in Friends.
The Comeback star is currently promoting her latest Apple TV+ series, Time Bandits, and appeared on Smartless podcast to discuss her career with hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes. She explained how she first met Emmy-winning TV director, James Burrows, who would go on to direct the pilot episodes of both Frasier and Friends, where she guest-starred on a 1989 episode of Cheers.
In the podcast, Arnett said to Kudrow, “So, when you went to audition for [Friends], he was already very familiar with you and loved you evidently.” To this, Kudrow replied, “Well, he was familiar enough that, you know, I got fired from the last thing.”
Kudrow’s last role was Fraiser, as she was cast as Roz Doyle in the pilot, but her role was ultimately given to Peri Gilpin for its 11-season run on NBC. Kudrow admitted, “It was devastating to get fired. It just wasn’t working, I don’t know. Jimmy was saying, like, ‘This isn’t working.’”
She continued explaining that she and Gilpin both auditioned for the role, “I think they did make a casting mistake with me. So, I think they were just correcting a mistake. Peri should’ve always been Roz, you know?”
Kudrow further shared with the hosts that she landed a recurring role as the absentminded, abrasive waitress Ursula on NBC’s Mad About You. She shared that Friends’ co-creator David Crane’s partner, Mad About You writer Jeffrey Klarik, suggested her for the role of Phoebe Buffay based on her performance as Ursula. Kudrow noted that she was the only Friends cast member who had to audition for Burrows, who was directing the show’s pilot “because I had just gotten fired from Frasier.”
She recalled, “When I auditioned, it’s just this small room. He’s sitting at a desk. I’m in a chair, and the audition was like a little monologue thing. And when I’m done, he just went, ‘No notes.’”
Obviously, Kudrow landed the famous role of Phoebe and earned six Emmy nominations and one win. She also reprised her role on the Mad About You character, portraying Ursula as Phoebe’s evil twin sister.
