Actress Lisa Kudrow recalled how her 'Friends' co-star Matt LeBlanc helped her ease some anxiety about her portrayal of Phoebe Buffay during the sitcom's early days. During an appearance on Sirius XM's Where Everybody Knows Your Name, Kudrow said that it took her "if not a year and a half, maybe two seasons, before I felt like I had Phoebe down." "The things she said were so outrageously illogical that in order for me to justify them, you know, I felt like 'Oof!'" she recalled.
"It just took a lot of work to figure out, 'All right, how is it possible that I think this is true or a good idea or a reasonable thing to say?'"
Lisa Kudrow went on to explain that she put in real "acting work" into her character but it wasn't until she was into her second or third season that she felt that something was off, reports people.com. "I'm like, 'something's wrong,' 'cause I'm not doing the work I was doing," she said.
"I'm slacking off. I'm being lazy and I was getting really mad at myself, and LeBlanc came. He said, 'What's going on with you?' I said, 'I'm being lazy. I'm not doing the work that I did first season, the second season. I'm not doing the work I did for Phoebe, so it can't be good'."
"And he went, 'No, you know who the character is now. You don't need to do the work you did. You got it," and I went, 'What? Oh'," she added. The host noted how with LeBlanc's help she was finally able to feel "relaxed."
"That was enough," Lisa Kudrow said. "It's sort of like someone shook me 'cause I was getting hysterical. I wasn't literally getting hysterical, but you know like if you're getting hysterical, someone slaps you back. You're like, 'Oh, thanks. That's what I needed'."
In addition to Kudrow and LeBlanc, 'Friends' also starred Mathew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and David Schwimmer. The popular sitcom aired for 10 seasons before coming to a close in 2004.
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