Lisa, it's your birthday...
Tuesday, July 30, 2013 at 10:21AM She’s now had 50 years on this Earth, and I think we can safely say that Lisa Kudrow – who’s certainly smarter than any of the characters she’s played – has given a lot of joy to the world in that time. Dave here to pay the Film Experience's respects to this fine actress. To the world at large, Kudrow will always be Phoebe Buffay, but of all the Friends, she’s surely the one with the spiciest CV after the show. It’s only her affinity for hard-edged, pitiful characters that's kept her from continued mainstream success. For the connoisseur, Kudrow remains one of the most adept comic actresses working. We salute you, Lisa, on your special day.
Watch, learn, and don’t eat her cookie.
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Phoebe Buffay, Friends
If you want to receive e-mails about my upcoming shows, then please, give me money so I can buy a computer.
six more indelible characters after the jump!
which is your favorite?
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Michele Weinberger, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
Well, ordinarily when you make glue first you need to thermoset your resin and then after it cools you have to mix in an epoxide, which is really just a fancy-schmancy name for any simple oxygenated adhesive, right? And then I thought maybe, just maybe, you could raise the viscosity by adding a complex glucose derivative during the emulsification process and it turns out I was right.
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Alex Whitney, The Simpsons
Your name's Lisa? Shut up, I love that name!
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Mamie, Happy Endings
Javier: [during a massage] This is what you need. This is why you paid.
Mamie: Well, it was... it was a gift certificate.
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Fiona Wallice, Web Therapy
I’m not bored. I mean, I have enough of an inner intellectual life to keep interested in anything that even you can be saying.
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Lucia DeLury, The Opposite of Sex
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Valerie Cherish, The Comeback
Speaking of new career offers, I recently turned down the lead in a TV movie about a woman who’s raped by her entire town.
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Who's your favourite Lisa Kudrow creation?
Reader Comments (29)
A brilliant actress , I think because of Friends she will always be slightly underrated, she deserved an Oscar nom for The Opposite of Sex.
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion is one of my favorite comedies. I am constantly giggling whenever I watch it and rarely does it go for the cheap and easy laughs- it actually is pretty smart with its characters.
"The Opposite Of Sex" definitely--if she hadn't been in one of the highest rated sitcoms on TV, she would've been in top demand as an independent film actress. But that's not to take away her stellar work on "Friends" and the loopy, brilliant spin she could put on the simplest lines. (Phoebe: "Ok, let's go running!" Rachel: "Oh, and there are cute men in the park!" Phoebe: "Let's run towards them!") Terrific actress, best wishes to her.
I love most of these characters, but Phoebe is just the best.
Also I met her one time and I was super awkward, but she was quite nice.
brilliant times seven. I LOVE her on web therapy and the comeback though get why those are acquired taste as she doesn't even remotely try to win sympathy with abrasive neediness or abrasive self regard. but i think her best performance might well be THE OPPOSITE OF SEX... or is its reputation so great just because it was such a surprise post Phoebe?
Happy birthday Lisa!
Phoebe is my favorite because she's been with me for the longest time and Friends is just an amazing show but I like all of the characters included in the post except maybe for Michele Weinberger and Happy Endings (the latter because I just don't remember her :/).
Valerie Cherish is one of the most BRILLIANT tv character E-V-E-R! Shame on hbo for giving that equally BRILLIANT show only 1 Season!
Netflix needs to revive "The Comeback", imo. Such an underrated show. Her Valarie Cherish proved that she was even a better actress than when she was Phoebe!
I'm enjoying "Web Therapy". I loved the episodes when Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin were in. They were hilarious! Also, when Ross showed up, lol. Fatherfucker!
Clockwatchers!
Ursula AND Phoebe. Fiona Wallice (so annoying, but so fun).
Also, love the fact that she's a pool shark--something she talked about in an interview on Fresh Air.
"You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment."
~Judy Holliday on her own career, but she might as well have been predicting Kudrow
anne marie -- love it. so true
Anna Marie- At least Judy got Bells Are Ringing which was a romantic lead. Sadly died too young.
"Well, y’know I may have relatives in France who would know. My grandmother said she got the recipe from her grandmother, Nestlé Toulouse." ;-)
What's sad is that despite having the most interesting post-Friends career, one might argue that she's been the least successful, at least to the general public's visibility.
Lisa has my eternal respect for TOOS AND RANDMHSR.
I just think she's brilliant in everything, even in vehicles I don't take a shine to, like Romy. I don't know how I'd pick between The Comeback and The Opposite of Sex, or the brilliance on Friends with that amazing Mad About You ramp-up. Love her even in smaller roles, like in Clockwatchers or Kabluey.
I think Guy Lodge was right that she'd have been a devastatingly good choice for the Barbara part in August: Osage County that wound up going to Julia Roberts.
So, so deserving of an Oscar nom for THE OPPOSITE OF SEX. Remember when critics tried to make us believe that Christina Ricci was a supporting actress in that film?
And, yes, to Kudrow being perfect for AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY.
She's just fabulous, isn't she? So great on Friends, especially.
A brilliant comic actress with that rarest of talents: she's endearing even when her character is most abrasive. She also has a discriminating taste to roles, so her successes are many. She was most definitely robbed for The Opposite of Sex. And I could watch Romy and Michelle once a month for the rest of my life and never stop laughing. "I'm the Mary and you're the Rhoda."
love her love her love her love her.
wow i never would have thought of her for BARBARA but now it's all i can picture. Ugh. why does the casting of AUGUST have to be so boring (apart from Juliette Lewis!)
I've only seen Kathy Bates and Lynn Redgrave performances, but I really don't know how she didn't get a nomination for "The Opposite of Sex". TV Prejudice, maybe, but that doesn't explain Helen Hunt the year before.
And "Romy and Michelle" is like totally tubular fun like totally!
I just ordered The Comeback DVD -- Valerie Cherish is just amazing. That show was brilliant!
I adore Lisa Kudrow. Definitely underrated. She deserved an Oscar nod for Opposite of Sex. And her work in Friends, The Comeback and now Web Therapy is brilliant.
My desire to see Michelle Williams in a dark comedy and Lisa Kudrow play someone's caustic mother is coalescing into one kick ass imaginary film. I'd settle for Kudrow playing the older sister if need be. Make it happen, Hollywood.
My love for this woman is eternal.
Lucia from The Opposite of Sex will probably always be my favourite of her alter egos - it's one of that decade's strongest performances.
But I agree with everyone who says she is brilliant in everything: The Comeback, Romy, Happy Endings, Web Therapy, Friends, everything
Love Lisa Kudrow! Phoebe was always my favourite on Friends and she should have been Oscar nominated twice already: The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings.
Note to self: after so many amazing CREATIONS, she should have people knocking at her door for high profile projects. She is really underrated, I think. Would love to have her, Catherine Keener and Kristen Wiig together in a movie.
I have seen The Comeback 3 times already and I am just in awe of that performance. She is brilliant by the second. There is always something to look at and admire in her choices. A little like how Sally Hawkins made me feel in Happy-go-Lucky. Which by the way, after her pitch-perfect accent work in Blue Jasmine (better than Blanchett for sure), she could be in that movie with Keener and Wiig and they could all be related somehow.
As far as Kudrow playing Barbara, that is just perfect casting. She was so great opposite Meryl already in Web Therapy...
I adore her. Phoebe absolutely makes <I>Friends</I> for me, <I>The Comeback</I> was genius and <I>The Opposite of Sex</I> is all the more amazing because of her. I still crack up at her line deliveries e.g. "You're like a lobster in a pot. You're just thrilled that the water's getting toasty."
I personally don't use it, but it used to be used on me once. It works very well for self confidence. It is a very effective psychological tool. My negative self-esteem was already helped to correct. Thankfully, the methods gave complicated outcomes, I'm glad now. It helped me a lot, and anyone with issues online therapy help visit them. I did not know what to do. True experts are working here and you can get advice online. It will now be very useful in times of pandemic.