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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Entertainment
Tina Campbell

Lisa Kudrow reveals Friends cast had to work on off-camera friendships

Lisa Kudrow has spoken about the struggle of initially forming a bond with her Friends co-stars - (Getty)

While onscreen they played the best of pals, Lisa Kudrow has revealed that forming a bond off-screen took some time for the cast of Friends.

The 61-year-old actress played the role of quirky Phoebe Buffay on the hit US sitcom which ran for 10 seasons between 1994 and 2004.

The cast, which also included Courteney Cox, Matt Le Blanc, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer, reunited in 2021 for a one-off special and over the years have appeared in photos on each other’s social media feeds.

Opening up on Dax Shephard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Kudrow admitted that the six-piece “worked hard at being friends”, adding “If someone said something or did something, it didn’t get too big because it was, ‘Can I talk to you?’”

Lisa Kurdrow pictured with the cast of Friends (Getty Images)

She went on to say it was “usually not her” who would start the conversation as she “never knew that was allowed” at the time.

“I had to learn to be like, ‘Can I talk to you about something?’”, she added.

During the chat, The Time Bandits star also touched on the the 2023 death of co-star Perry.

The Canadian actor who played wise-cracking Chandler Bing was found dead aged 54 in the outdoor hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28.

Matthew Perry died last year from the ‘acute effects of ketamine’ (PA Archive)

It was later confirmed that Perry - who spoke openly of his alcohol and substance abuse issues in the past - had died due to the “acute effects of ketamine”.

“This will sound odd,” Kudrow said about the death. “I’m more comforted that he was happy the day he died. He got to die happy. And to me, that was a gift.”

When drawn about his addictions, Kurdrow reflected: “I loved that Matthew I first met and the one at the end, because God love him, this is you, and I love you. I understand, and so did he.”

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