- In a new interview with The Times of London, Lisa Kudrow revealed some “mean stuff” that went down behind the scenes of Friends.
- Lisa got candid about her experiences working on the famous sitcom, which aired from 1994 to 2004.
- She noted that the writers’ room, which was “mostly men,” would “be up late discussing their sexual fantasies” about her co-stars, Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox.
As Lisa Kudrow reprises her iconic role as sitcom actor Valerie Cherish on The Comeback, she’s reflecting on the real-life sitcom that helped make her a household name in pop culture: Friends. From 1994 to 2004, Lisa played the delightfully kooky masseuse and coffee shop musician, Phoebe Buffay, alongside David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry.
While the show catapulted its core six into superstardom, it wasn’t always as fun behind the scenes. During a new interview with The Times of London, Lisa revealed some “mean stuff” that went down on the set of Friends—including some disturbing “sexual fantasies” about her female co-stars.
“The guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney,” she said of the famous sitcom’s writers’ room, which was made up of “mostly men.” She added, “It was intense.”
She also noted that some of the writers would have “brutal” reactions if any women had messed up on set.
“There was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” she claimed. “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 bitch fucking read? She’s not even trying. She fucked up my line.’”
Lisa continued, “Oh, it 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 matter.’”
Lisa’s recent revelations are eerily similar to her character Valerie’s storyline on The Comeback, in which one of the writers on the fictional sitcom, Room and Bored, had made lewd and sexual jokes about her when she was delivering freshly baked cookies during a late-night writing session.
However, in another recent interview with The New Yorker, Lisa and The Comeback’s co-creator, Michael Patrick King, denied that the scene was directly inspired by behavior from the Friends set.
In the 2000s, one of Friends’ female writer’s assistant, Amaani Lyle, filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Television for the writers’ room conduct. According to Variety, Amaani claimed that the writers “frequently made sexual and racist remarks, and as the writers’ assistant, she was forced to take notes on everything that was said in the room.”
Though the case made it to the Supreme Court, the court ruled against her because, in any event, her allegations “did not amount to conduct severe enough or sufficiently pervasive as to alter the conditions of her employment and create a hostile or abusive work environment.”
“When that happened, I really did feel, like, Yeah, they’re going to say vulgar, mean, terrible things. What do I care if I don’t have to hear it?” Lisa told The New Yorker of the case. “But it actually did make other people who had to be in the room uncomfortable, and that is an issue.”
