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Friends star Lisa Kudrow, who starred as Phoebe Buffay in the hugely popular and beloved sitcom, has criticised the writers on the show, alleging they were “brutal” and discussed “sexual fantasies” about the actresses.
Speaking to The Times, the star, 62, claimed that the “mostly men” writing crew often reprimanded the cast for forgetting lines.
“There was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” Kudrow alleged. “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 fucking read? She’s not even trying. She fucked up my line.’”
She added that “the guys [in the writers’ room] would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer Aniston and Courteney [Cox]. It was intense.”
The writing staff that worked on Friends have yet to comment publicly on Kudrow’s allegations.
In 1999, a sexual harassment court case was brought by the writers’ assistant Amaani Lyle, whose job it was to transcribe brainstorming sessions. She alleged that she was shocked to hear Friends writers discussing sleeping with Aniston and Cox, feigning masturbation and other sexual acts.
The Supreme Court eventually ruled against Lyle after deciding coarse demeanour was a necessary part of the work environment, according to Variety.
Elsewhere in the interview, Kudrow recalled memories of Matthew Perry. She wrote the foreword to Perry’s 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Terrible Big Thing”, in which she wrote that she hadn’t realised the extent of her co-star’s struggles with addiction.
“Because there was a genius at work,” she says. “And whatever any of us do in the future, we will never experience something like that again.”
Kudrow co-created and stars in the satirical sitcom The Comeback, which is currently in its third season.