Lisa Kudrow shares how she became Phoebe in Friends

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She could’ve never starred in Friends. Her thing used to be biology. Listen to Lisa Kudrow share how she became Phoebe.

Transcript

00:00How did I go from biology major to actress?

00:04That is the one question I am asked most frequently.

00:07Okay, when I was a kid, yes, I did, I wanted to be an actress.

00:12But when I took biology in high school, I was hooked.

00:16The biological theories I learned to me were the height of creativity.

00:21So I pursued my passion for biology and wherever that would lead me.

00:25I had nothing to do with acting while in high school, nor while at Vassar.

00:31I was never in a play.

00:32I never, I don't think, really saw a play.

00:36I wasn't interested in the least, not the least.

00:41Then during my senior year, I was at Vassar, oh no, but I was home for spring break.

00:48I was driving around L.A. and I heard a promo for a sitcom on the radio.

00:55They'd play their best joke from the show and I remember hearing in my head, oh God,

01:01that's not funny.

01:02Oh, they punched that joke too hard.

01:05Just throw it away.

01:06Lisa, remember to throw it away when you do it.

01:10Why do I need to remember to throw a joke away?

01:13I don't need to remember that.

01:15So I dismissed it until after I graduated and was happily doing research with my father

01:20at the headache clinic and it happened again, and again, and again.

01:27I'd be watching a sitcom and I'd hear myself saying, oh God, no, don't do that.

01:31Don't do that comedy walk thing like those sitcom actresses do.

01:37It really got relentless.

01:39So I entertained the idea of being an actress, then moved to justify the idea with, you know

01:46you're 22, you have no mortgage, no husband and kids, no responsibilities.

01:53You have to do this acting thing now, right now.

01:55I'm so sorry, but you have to.

01:58By November of 1985, I declared that I would pursue acting.

02:05I was a little terrified and not because I didn't think it would work out.

02:12I was weirdly confident for no reason at all, but it was because this didn't exactly

02:20feel like it was a choice as much as succumbing to a compulsion.

02:26And I didn't analyze what led me to this point, whether it was divine intervention or a lapse

02:32in judgment or sanity.

02:34I just listened to that inner voice.

02:38Over the next eight years, my resolve and commitment was steadily challenged.

02:43Challenged by casting directors telling me to my face that I was horrible.

02:48Agents letting me know, it's hard, we don't know what to do with you.

02:50They want gorgeous on TV, you know, there's no place for you really.

02:57Finally I got a coveted spot in the main, that was my agent, by the way, just so it

03:02hits home.

03:04After many auditions, I was the second person cast in the pilot called Friends Like Us,

03:12which would later be changed to Friends.

03:15Jim Burrows also directed this pilot and the first ten episodes of Friends.

03:20One day the six of us were talking with Jimmy, exchanging the time I got fired stories, and

03:27Jimmy told them mine.

03:31Well, she's got the worst one of all.

03:34She got fired from Frasier.

03:37You were right for the part, darling.

03:40Thanks.

03:41Well, it's a good thing you got fired or you wouldn't have been on this show.

03:46He was right.

03:49And it was a good thing I didn't get Saturday Night Live.

03:52And that Romy and Michelle, that that pilot didn't work out.

03:55And every other disappointment that happened, they were actually more like guideposts that

04:02kept me on my path.

04:04Oh, and after I got fired from Frasier, I went to a birthday party and feeling like

04:09I had nothing at all to lose, I flirted with a guy who was way out of my league.

04:16We dated and on Thursday, Michelle and I will have been married for 15 years.

04:25Yeah, that is the biggest achievement.

04:28It is.

04:29And we'll celebrate with our remarkable 12-year-old son.

04:33So thank God I got fired.

04:39Maybe there is a reason for everything.

04:41I think there is.

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