Lisa Kudrow said her Friends character Phoebe Buffay "wasn't stupid" in a recent interview
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"At first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do," the actress said
Friends aired for 10 seasons on NBC from 1994 to 2004
Lisa Kudrowis setting the record straight on her iconicFriendscharacter.
The actress, 62, said Phoebe Buffay from the hit sitcom "wasn't stupid" while speaking with actressLily Tomlinfor anInterview Magazinearticle published on Monday, March 30.
"At the time, it was like, 'She's such a ditz. How is it that you only play ditzes?' And I thought, Is she a ditz? To me, she wasn't," Kudrow recalled of the public response to her character.
When asked who called Phoebe a ditz, she replied, "Everybody. In 1994, it was like, 'I love her. She's such a ditz.' And it's like, yeah, okay, that was what a ditz was to us. Someone who wasn't toeing the line."
TheComebackstar emphasized, however, that her character "wasn't stupid."
Still, Kudrow said it took some time for her to personally connect with her character, but it eventually happened over the show's lengthy run.
"At first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do. Not in an irritating way—it was fun. Over the course of 10 years, a little bit of her came into me. I lightened up a little more and read some books on spirituality and things, just to try to understand her," she said.
The NBC sitcom about six friends living in New York City aired from 1994 to 2004. It also starredJennifer Aniston,Courteney Cox,David Schwimmer,Matt LeBlancand the lateMatthew Perry.
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Phoebe was a musician who juggled a variety of jobs throughout the series. Kudrow won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of the quirky character in 1998.
The actressrevisited her time on the beloved showwhile speaking withToday.comin 2024.
"We loved each other," she said of her costars. "Going to work every day was heaven. It was too good to be true, but it really was."
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Kudrow also said starring on the show and having such early success opened the door for her later works.
"Because I was onFriends, I got to create my own shows that didn't have to be as big asFriends, so I could do something likeThe ComebackorWeb Therapy, and that was really fulfilling," she said at the time.
The Comebackpremieredits third and final seasonon March 22, two decades after its first installment in 2005.
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