The One Where Jennifer Aniston Fangirls Over Lisa Kudrow
It’s been 26 years since the pilot aired – and 16 since Central Perk officially closed its doors – but Friends has never left our hearts (or our small screens). The entire cast – David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow – has signed on for a one-off reunion episode, but thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it has been postponed. Thankfully, Aniston and Kudrow got together over video call in the interim to chat about it – and reminisce about good times on set– as part of Variety’s Actors on Actors interview series.
“Do you actually remember when you first met me?” asks Aniston during their Zoom call. “Yes, I do – at the table read. You remember what everyone was wearing,” replies Kudrow, referring to the first time the Friends cast was brought together to read through a script. “I do,” says Aniston. “You were wearing an appropriate Phoebe Buffay [outfit] – like a white linen, hippie shirt, and you had a bunch of seashells and necklaces on. And you had your hair pulled up in two little clips, and you had these little blonde tendrils.” “Oh, God bless,” replies Kudrow, laughing, before Aniston goes on: “So, so, so beautiful! And Courteney [Cox] had on a pink baby tee with a white trim.”
Aniston and Kudrow, who played Rachel Green and Phoebe Buffay respectively on the hit TV show, discussed their latest projects, and indulged in a whole lot of mutual fangirling (as friends do). “By the way, it’s my favourite show,” Kudrow says of Aniston’s award-winning vehicle The Morning Show. “Watched all of them the minute we could, my husband and I both. We have a hard time finding shows we can both watch together. And then it’s just so well-written. You blew me away… You were so completely The Morning Show host that it wasn’t you anymore. I would go, ‘Wait, that was Jennifer?’”
For Aniston, Kudrow’s review of her performance was the highest possible compliment. “…Coming from you, who, literally, the characters that you portrayed consistently over all of the years of knowing you, I never see Lisa, ever. I’m really moved,” Aniston says in the footage.
The pair went on to discuss the Friends reunion episode, which according to the show’s co-creator Marta Kauffman, will now air in August. “I think it will be really fun when we finally get out and can do the reunion show,” says Aniston. “Yes, that will be really great,” Lisa replies. “I can’t wait to do that.”
Aniston continues: “I cannot wait. It’s also strange to think it would have been shot and already aired and it would be a little speck in our memory. It’s going to be fun.” “We don’t know everything about it,” Kudrow points out in the clip. “Oh, we don’t know anything about it,” Aniston admits. “What we do know, we can’t say,” Kudrow teases. “I think we’re meant to be surprised by some things.”
