Lisa Kudrow shared her true feelings on one of the most debated storylines from Friends.
The 62-year-old actress, who starred as the eccentric Phoebe Buffay on the fan-beloved sitcom, weighed in on a plot line that has divided fans for years: Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) breakup.
The fan divide has centered on whether Ross was in the right when he slept with someone else after stating he and Rachel were ‘on a break.’
Kudrow – who recently revealed the astonishing number she makes in residuals from the show – shared her scathing take on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, though she admitted she was ‘afraid’ to bring up the polarizing subject.
‘What is your take? Were they on a break?’ Fallon asked, to which she replied, ‘Well, no. But it’s beyond that. It’s beyond break or not. He was a bad boyfriend.’
The star was surprised when fans applauded her reply, stating, ‘Oh, you agree! Oh, I feel better. Thank you. Thank you for this. Thank you, all of you.’
Lisa Kudrow, 62, shared her true feelings on one of the most debated storylines from Friends on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
The star weighed in on Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) breakup, and a long-running fan divide over whether Ross was justified in sleeping with someone else after claiming they were ‘on a break’; Schwimmer and Aniston seen in a still
‘We did the reunion just like five years ago… we were all so like, “They were on a break.” Like, “Rachel, that hysterical shrew, not letting him sleep with someone and won’t get back together,”‘ Kudrow recalled.
‘She shouldn’t have gotten back with him because he was horrible,’ she added.
‘To me, it’s like, I don’t care if he slept with three other women or no other women. You had a crisis at work, so you weren’t available for a few nights, and he flipped out. And you’re like, “Wow!”‘
And when Fallon asked her if Schwimmer was aware that she thought his character was a horrible boyfriend, Kudrow stayed silent, to which the host quipped, ‘He knows now.’
Schwimmer had a very different take when he spoke with Fallon in 2020.
‘It’s not even a question,’ he said, adding, ‘They were on a break.’
Meanwhile, in 2022 Aniston asserted in an ad, ‘For the record… we were so not on a break.’
It comes after Kudrow recently accused the show’s predominantly male writing team of openly discussing their sexual fantasies about her female co-stars.
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Should Rachel have forgiven Ross, or did his behavior cross the line for good?
‘Were they on a break?’ Fallon asked, to which she replied, ‘Well, no. But it’s beyond that. It’s beyond break or not. He was a bad boyfriend’
‘She shouldn’t have gotten back with him because he was horrible,’ she added. The actress was surprised that the audience agreed with her and applauded the statement
‘I don’t care if he slept with three other women or no other women. You had a crisis at work, so you weren’t available for a few nights, and he flipped out. And you’re like, “Wow!”‘ she said
Schwimmer previously told Fallon in 2020: ‘It’s not even a question. They were on a break.’ Meanwhile, Aniston previously asserted, ‘For the record… we were so not on a break’
She said life on set was at odds with the show’s carefree premise, with each 22-minute episode taking as long as six hours to film in front of an expectant studio audience in Los Angeles – thousands of miles away from its New York City setting.
‘There was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,’ Kudrow told The Times.
‘Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response they could be like, “Can’t the b**** f****** read? She’s not even trying. She f***** up my line.”‘
Kudrow claimed her female co-stars Aniston and Courteney Cox would also be the subject of lurid conversations amongst its largely male writing team.
She said: ‘The guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney. It was intense.’
‘Oh, it could be brutal, but these guys – and it was mostly men in there – were sitting up until 3:00am. Trying to write the show so my attitude was, “Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matter.”‘
Speaking to The Independent, the actress also claimed that co-stars Aniston, Cox, Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry eclipsed her in popularity while the series was still on television.
‘Nobody cared about me,’ she said. ‘There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as “the sixth Friend”.’
Kudrow recently accused the show’s predominantly male writing team of openly discussing their sexual fantasies about her female co-stars Aniston and Courteney Cox
Kudrow played Phoebe throughout the show’s ten-season run from 1994 to 2004; Kudrow with her co-stars Aniston, Cox, Schwimmer, Matt Le Blanc and the late Matthew Perry
As Friends became a megahit from its second season, several of her co-stars leveraged that success to secure choice film roles, but Kudrow appeared to think the same kinds of deals eluded her.
‘There was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have,’ she said. ‘There was just, like, “Boy, is she lucky she got on that show.”‘
Despite feeling unappreciated earlier in her career, Kudrow has since found enduring success on a variety of shows beyond Friends, including her HBO series The Comeback.
Kudrow played Phoebe throughout the show’s ten-season run from 1994 to 2004, alongside Aniston, Cox, Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.
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