More than 22 years have passed since the official end of 'Friends,' yet it seems Phoebe Buffay has never really left Lisa Kudrow. Even when she arrives for an interview at the Warner Bros. studios in Los Angeles, dressed in a black shirt and pants with a short bob — about as far from Phoebe as possible — the conversation drifts back to that iconic character.
Her series 'The Comeback,' whose third season recently premiered, also nods to that role. In the show, which airs in Israel on HBO Max, Kudrow plays Valerie Cherish, a former sitcom actress trying to revive her career. The series, created by Kudrow with Michael Patrick King, director of 'Sex and the City,' debuted in 2005 but was canceled due to low ratings. It was revived in 2014 for a second season.
No one expected a third season, but it happened after King pitched Kudrow an idea: “What if Valerie were offered a role in a series written entirely by artificial intelligence?” Kudrow was immediately intrigued and agreed. She even wrote a role specifically for her only son, Julian Stern, 27, from her marriage to advertising executive Michel Stern. Julian, a short film director making his acting debut, plays Owen, an expert in artificial intelligence technology.
Lisa, what was it like acting alongside your son?
“It was heaven working with him, but I felt a bit guilty — because I forgot he was my son, and also because he told me it felt like he was Owen talking to Valerie. We filmed the series on the same set where we shot 'Friends,' and that was very emotional. I have a picture of him there at age 2, washing his hands in the utility kitchen, and now he’s back — this time playing a character. My God.”
You once said Jennifer Aniston used to play with him on set.
“Yes, she was full of love, and I was glad someone was playing with him. But then when we got home and he saw her on TV, he would immediately say, ‘Mom!’”
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With her son Julian at the premiere of the new season
(Photo: GettyImages IL/ Amy Sussman)
Kudrow, 62, was cast as Phoebe — a role that earned her an Emmy Award — at age 30. A few years earlier, she had planned to become a doctor like her father, Dr. Lee Kudrow. She studied at Vassar College and spent eight years working in her father’s field, researching headaches, before deciding to pursue acting. By 1994 she had appeared in several series, such as 'Mad About You,' but none made her a star like 'Friends.'
How different was Phoebe from you as a person?
“At first, she was very, very far from me. The role required a lot of work to justify the things she said and did. Over the years, some of her seeped into me. I became a bit more easygoing, and I read some books on spirituality to try to understand her. People tended to say, ‘She’s so stupid,’ but I didn’t see her that way.”
Kudrow grew up in Los Angeles in a Jewish family and is the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor on her father’s side (her mother’s family immigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States before the war). At age 7, her grandmother told her how her parents and siblings were murdered by Hitler. Years later, Kudrow traveled to Belarus, where she visited a mass grave of about 900 Jews, including members of her family. While participating in the series 'Who Do You Think You Are?,' which traces celebrities’ family histories, she also traveled to Gdynia, Poland, where she discovered that a cousin had survived the war but changed his name to assimilate as Polish. Kudrow later helped reconnect him with her father.
Do you see a connection between your family history and your work as a comic actress?
“My father is very funny, my whole family is very funny. I’m the youngest, so I always tried to keep up. It was a coping mechanism in our home, and also, you know, for my grandparents. I didn’t understand it then, but no matter what happened, someone would crack a joke — even at a funeral — and everyone would laugh. It was simply a necessary release. There’s nothing better than making people laugh. It’s very healing and allows you to do something that truly brings joy to others.”