Lisa Kudrow wasn’t good enough to nail ‘Friends’ role with one audition
Lisa Kudrow didn’t initially clique with “Friends.”
The “Better Nate Than Ever” star, 58, recently revealed that she had to do an extra audition before landing the role that catapulted her to fame.
Kudrow, who starred as Phoebe Buffay for a decade on the NBC series, had to prove to director Jim Burrows that she was perfect for the part after he had previously fired her from another show.
Kudrow had been let go from Burrows’ other iconic series, “Frasier,” after the pilot episode wrapped in 1993 — the year before “Friends” aired.
“I was cast in ‘Frasier’ as Roz — mistakenly cast. I didn’t know that at the time,” she explained on the “Jess Cagle Podcast With Julia Cunnigham.” “I knew that Jim clocked that I was wrong from the table read and so I thought, ‘Oh he doesn’t like me or what I do.’”
Mercifully, she was called in to do one last round of auditions on “Friends,” which ultimately earned her the part.
“So then we’re doing ‘Friends’ and I had to do a special audition for Jim Burrows. You have to do auditions for producers and studio, network, but in between all of that, I had to go in and read for Jim Burrows,” she recounted.
“I thought maybe everyone had to do it, but I found out a few years ago that I was the only one. Just to make sure that it was all OK with Jimmy that I played Phoebe.”
Despite earning Burrows’ initial approval, she was frustrated when she discovered that he would be directing the pilot episode.
“So [on set for the pilot] I said, ‘Ugh, f–k Jimmy Burrows is directing this.’ It was more like in defeat than anger,” Kudrow recalled.
The two began on rocky ground, but soon earned each other’s trust.
“We were getting ready to do a run-through and I have to do my Phoebe monologue and he’s like, ‘Lisa, sit under the table to read the monologue, do it under the table, she’s out there,’” Kudrow said.
“I just went, ‘My God, I can’t connect with anyone. If you need to demonstrate how much my character doesn’t belong with these people … ‘ I did the best I could and then, after the run-through, David Crane [‘Friends’ co-creator] says, ‘Lisa, it’s fun that you’re under the table,’ as if it was my idea, ‘but I’m not sure that it works.’”
