Lisa Kudrow Shares Insights on Behind-the-Scenes Challenges of ‘Friends’ and Writers’ Conversations About Female Co-Stars’ Experiences
Lisa Kudrow is reflecting on her experience during the production of Friends, highlighting instances of toxic masculinity exhibited by the predominantly male writing team.
In an interview with The Times of London, Kudrow, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay for ten seasons on the NBC sitcom, discussed the “mean stuff going on behind the scenes.”
“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 bitch f*cking read? She’s not even trying. She f*cked up my line,’” she stated in an interview published on April 23.
Kudrow also noted, “And we know that back in the room the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer [Aniston] and Courteney [Cox]. It was intense.”
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While acknowledging the environment could be harsh, Kudrow remarked, “It could be brutal, but these guys — and it was mostly men in there — were sitting up until 3 a.m. trying to write the show, so my attitude was, ‘Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matter.’”
In 1999, Amaani Lyle, a writers’ assistant on the series, filed a lawsuit against three male writers for sexual harassment, alleging that she had been forced to hear their discussions about fantasies related to Aniston and Cox. The court ultimately ruled against Lyle, stating that the comments did not target her specifically and were deemed part of the writing process.
