Lisa Kudrow Had To Go Through Two Auditions To Score ‘Friends’ Role

Friends is one of the most well-known television series of all time. Its popularity has spread globally, and the show is now a household name. Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on the sitcom, recently discussed her struggles in landing the role.

The 58-year-old actress recently revealed that she had to go through an additional audition before obtaining the part that propelled her to international fame. Prior to auditioning for the NBC series, Kudrow was fired from another show by the same director responsible for ‘Friends.’

Jim Burrows had laid off Kudrow from “Frasier,” after its pilot episode aired in 1993, which was a year before ‘Friends’ debuted. While speaking on “Jess Cagle Podcast With Julia Cunnigham,” Kudrow recalled the time when she did two auditions for the show.

I was cast in ‘Frasier’ as Roz — mistakenly cast. I didn’t know that at the time. I knew that Jim clocked that I was wrong from the table read and so I thought, ‘Oh he doesn’t like me or what I do.’ So then we’re doing ‘Friends’ and I had to do a special audition for Jim Burrows. You have to do auditions for producers and studio, network, but in between all of that, I had to go in and read for Jim Burrows. I thought maybe everyone had to do it, but I found out a few years ago that I was the only one. Just to make sure that it was all OK with Jimmy that I played Phoebe.

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Kudrow went on to land more roles easily after the last season of “Friends’ wrapped up. Her Hollywood career has given her several opportunities as well. She has received critical acclaim for playing Phoebe, including a Primetime Emmy Award.

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