This Is the Reason Lisa Kudrow Is Binge-Watching ‘Friends’

For years, Lisa Kudrow refused to watch reruns of her hit sitcom Friends. Around the time of the Friends reunion, she gave it another try with her husband Michel Stern. “Michel and I started watching some of Season Four, which I thought I had watched, it’s as if I didn’t,” she said. “He enjoys them more than I do because I’m mortified with myself.”

But now she’s finally settling in for a rewatch, she told The Hollywood Reporter, and it’s because she wants to reconnect with her old friend Matthew Perry. “Honestly, I wasn’t able to watch it because it’s too embarrassing to watch yourself. But if I make it about Matthew, then that’s okay,” Kudrow explained. “And it’s just celebrating how hilarious he was — and that is what I want to remember (about him).” 

Now that she’s finally on her binge, what does she think? “I’m laughing out loud, and everyone is hilarious. I’m blown away by Courteney Cox. I’m blown away by Jen (Aniston). Matthew, obviously, is just uniquely hilarious. No one ever knew that cadence or comedic rhythm before him. Matt LeBlanc is hilarious. And David Schwimmer, too,” she said, making sure to check the mental box beside each of her castmates’ names. 

“Sometimes I even laugh at what I’ve done,” she added. “So yeah, I mean, that’s my own little way of celebrating, just watching it.”

But she’s still not over the self-consciousness. “It’s embarrassing,” she admitted once more. “At home, if anyone walks in the room and I’m watching Friends, that’s a horrible look, I think, don’t you?”

One particular episode that Kudrow remembers well is when Phoebe, Rachel and Joey discover that Monica and Chandler are secretly dating. The three friends decide to mess with the new couple, with Phoebe hatching a plan to seduce Chandler. It was LeBlanc’s idea to up the ante.

“It’s like, ‘We’ve got to come up with something to up the stakes.’ And I think it was him that went, ‘What if he just (imitates unbuttoning a shirt with one hand), and the shirt flies open?’” Kudrow said, laughing at the memory. “And (Friends producers) were like, ‘Are you okay wearing a bra?’ And I went, ‘A bra? There’s more covering than a bathing suit! It’s fine.’”

Kudrow may have little choice in thinking about Perry as news continues to trickle out about the cause of his death. The Los Angeles Police Department, the U.S. Postal Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency continue to investigate, trying to identify the person who supplied the ketamine responsible for Perry’s fatal overdose. 

In the meantime, Kudrow has the Friends rewatch to keep happier memories in mind. “You’re just laughing all day long, basically, in between the scenes, because these are funny people,” she concluded. “And especially someone like Matthew, whose goal was: How many laughs can I get in real life every day? So we were always laughing so hard, tears were flying out of our faces.”