Lisa Kudrow opens up about 'devastating' moment she was FIRED from Frasier

Virgin Radio

31 Jul 2024, 15:32

Friends star Lisa Kudrow has opened up about the “devastating” moment she was “fired” from Frasier.

Prior to when the beloved sitcom actress was cast as Phoebe Buffay in the famous 90s show, Kudrow was first set to star as one of the leads in another success of the time period - Frasier.

Kudrow was going to play producer Roz Doyle on the Cheers spin-off show, but the role ended up being played by Peri Gilpin after the Friends actress-to-be was scrapped from the show before they’d even filmed the pilot.

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Speaking recently on the SmartLess podcast, Kudrow opened up about how the experience led her to have lots of nerves when she later won the role of Phoebe in Friends.

According to Kudrow, her time on Frasier came to an end when during a script run-through, the director James Burrows (who she would later work with on Friends) simply declared “this isn’t working”.

“I was trying to like [ask], 'What can I do?' But I think they did make a casting mistake with me, because it [eventually] went to the network with Peri Gilpin. I think they were just correcting a mistake. 'Cause Peri should have always been Roz,” she shared.

Kudrow described the experience of being ousted from Frasier as “devastating” and explained it made her worried once she was cast as Phoebe that’s she’d be “hopeless” in that role too.

But thankfully for the Time Bandits star, she proved her doubts wrong and ended up playing one of the most recognisable characters in television.

Speaking on Conan O’Brien’s podcast Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend recently, Kudrow revealed one challenge while filming Friends was dealing with audience reactions.

“They were laughing for too long. It wasn’t that funny,” she argued while explaining her problem to Conan. “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,’” she said she would think. “Sometimes I would just look out if they’d been laughing too long and go: ‘Come on,’ really angry.”

New episodes of Time Bandits' drop on Apple TV+ every Wednesday.