{"id":258126,"date":"2026-08-18T06:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/18\/lisa-kudrow-reveals-brutal-way-sitcom-bosses-let-her-down-before-friends-role\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:00:17","slug":"lisa-kudrow-reveals-brutal-way-sitcom-bosses-let-her-down-before-friends-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/08\/18\/lisa-kudrow-reveals-brutal-way-sitcom-bosses-let-her-down-before-friends-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisa Kudrow reveals brutal way sitcom bosses let her down before Friends role"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2026-08-18\" datetime=\"1787032817\" pubdate=\"\">18 August 2026<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/lisa-kudrow\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,lisa-kudrow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lisa Kudrow<\/a> missed out on sitcom roles because she was &#8220;not gorgeous&#8221; enough.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">Lisa Kudrow was told she wasn&#8217;t &#8216;gorgeous&#8217; enough for certain roles<\/p>\n<p>The 63-year-old Friends legend, who played Phoebe Buffay on the beloved comedy from 1994 to 2004, has insisted she understood getting snubbed for certain roles when casting directors wanted to go in a different direction.<\/p>\n<p>She told The Hollywood Reporter&#8217;s Awards Chatter podcast: &#8220;I didn\u2019t look like women who were getting cast as series regulars on sitcoms.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They still wanted a certain look \u2014 very pretty and appealing and all of that \u2014 and not that funny, right, except for Shelley Long\u2026<\/p>\n<p>                      \t\t\t<!-- Dailymotion player (contact: Kutay.vardar@dailymotion.com) --><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was told, \u2018It\u2019s very hard because you\u2019re not gorgeous, and they want gorgeous.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I don\u2019t think that\u2019s ridiculous. I got it. Also, it\u2019s not just how you look; it\u2019s how you act, too. I\u2019m not \u2018cute.\u2019 And God, I didn\u2019t want to be cute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nLisa recalled trying to push for the role of Rachel Green in Friends before Jennifer Aniston landed the role.<\/p>\n<p>\nShe explained: \u201cIdiot that I am, I went, \u2018Oh, but you know what? I got to say, Rachel is Jewish. And boy, I love doing a Jewish American Princess. I think I could make that really funny.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Not even clocking that, \u2018Oh no, this is the romantic lead to Ross.\u2019 Right? I told my agents, \u2018I can do Jewish American Princess and make that really funny.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;And so they said, \u2018Uh-huh. All right. Well, we\u2019ll tell them [the show\u2019s creators].'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nLisa revealed how her team told her she was set to play Phoebe instead, and admitted she thought there were other reasons.<\/p>\n<p>\nShe added: &#8220;They [later] went, \u2018No, no. It\u2019s so hard for them to find Phoebe. They\u2019re not messing with that.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;So that was the sweet way of saying, \u2018Yeah, you are not the romantic interest.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\nMeanwhile, Lisa also reflected on her decision to watch Friends for the first time since filming the show, following the tragic death of Matthew Perry aged 54 in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>\nShe said: &#8220;It was great watching it. It became my right-before-bedtime laugh or two. I watch sitcoms before going to bed \u2014 I just want to laugh before going to bed.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;Some things were like, \u2018Oh, I remember that,\u2019 but a lot of it I don\u2019t remember and it was like watching it for the first time \u2014 I mean, especially scenes that Phoebe wasn\u2019t in, because I hadn\u2019t seen that \u2014 and boy, everyone was good! <\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;I was just talking to [David] Schwimmer two days ago and saying, \u2018God\u2014\u2019 Well, first I had to say sorry, because on Jimmy Fallon I\u2019d said, \u2018Ross was a terrible boyfriend!\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;And he just laughed and said, \u2018That\u2019s all right.\u2019 He hasn\u2019t really watched it either, and I said, \u2018It\u2019s so fun. Everyone is so good!&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/lisa-kudrow-reveals-brutal-way-sitcom-bosses-let-friends-role-1449204.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>18 August 2026 Lisa Kudrow missed out on sitcom roles because she was &#8220;not gorgeous&#8221; enough. Lisa Kudrow was told she wasn&#8217;t &#8216;gorgeous&#8217; enough for certain roles The 63-year-old Friends legend, who played Phoebe Buffay on the beloved comedy from 1994 to 2004, has insisted she understood getting snubbed for certain roles when casting directors [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2914],"class_list":{"0":"post-258126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","8":"tag-lisa-kudrow"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}