Lisa Kudrow says she grew “irritated” with live audience at ‘Friends’ tapings for laughing too long
Friends star Lisa Kudrow has revealed that she grew “irritated” with the live audience while filming the hit show for laughing too long at things that weren’t funny – see what she had to say below.
Speaking to Conan O’Brien for his Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Kudrow spoke about what it was like filming for the hit series, which ran for 10 seasons. In the show, Kudrow played the aloof and goofy Phoebe Buffay.
An hour into their chat, O’Brien recalled that Kudrow had previously said she doesn’t like performing in front of a live audience. She explained: “Because they were laughing for too long. It wasn’t that funny. That’s why. It wasn’t an honest response and it irritated me. Now you’re just ruining the timing of the rest of the show. There are other lines. Sometimes I would just look out if they’d been laughing too long, and go, ‘Come on’. Really angry.”
She continued: “A TV show is not for the studio audience. It is made for the TV viewers at home. That’s who we are in service to. If it was a stage play, yeah laugh as long as you want. I’ll figure out things to keep my character busy waiting to continue with it. That’s fine. It’s being filmed and now I’m just standing there… you do like nod, ‘Yeah, I said that.’ It’s terrible. They instructed our audience not to do anything like that, I think.”
Kudrow also said that it took six to eight hours to film a 30-minute episode, so the laughs would eventually stop after going through multiple takes, but that the studio would use the laugh tracks from the original takes for the finalised episode.
Last month, Kudrow revealed that she’s been rewatching the series “to remember” her late co-star Matthew Perry, who died last year at the age of 54. Perry was found unconscious at his home in Los Angeles in late October. It has since been revealed that he died from the acute effects of ketamine, with contributing factors including drowning.
A criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death was launched by the LAPD in May and is reportedly “nearing its conclusion”. Police have said that “multiple people” should be charged in connection with the actor’s death.
Meanwhile, Aniston was brought to tears during a recent interview with Quinta Brunson, in which she was asked what it is like to watch Friends following the death of co-star Perry.
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Surej Singh
NME
