Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow Reminisce Over First ‘Friends’ Table Read

In an interview for Variety’s Actors, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow are reminiscing their time on ‘Friends‘. They look back at the first table read of Friends.

Lisa played Phoebe Buffay while Jennifer played Rachel Green in the hit sitcom.

Jennifer described Lisa’s look when they first met for the table read. “You were wearing an appropriate Phoebe Buffay. Like a white linen, hippie shirt. And you had a bunch of seashells and necklaces on. And you had your hair pulled up in two little clips. You had these little blond tendrils,” she described. Aniston thought it was very beautiful.

Kudrow responded saying she was trying to get into the character wearing all of that.

Aniston said she thought Kudrow was auditioning and didn’t get the part yet.

Kudrow and Aniston fondly look back at the memories. They also revealed that they found themselves watching bloopers of the show.

Jennifer reveals she loves stumbling upon a Friends episode. She recalls a time when Courtney Cox and her were trying to find a Friends reference. But instead they stumbled upon the bloopers video and laughed at themselves.

“I love stumbling on a Friends episode. This one time I was with Courteney, and we were trying to find something to reference, an old Friends thing,” Aniston said. “And then we stumbled on… bloopers online and we sat there at the computer like two nerds watching these bloopers laughing at ourselves.” 

Kudrow agrees and reveals she spends hours at a stretch watching bloopers.

Aniston recalls while watching few episodes when the actors broke down in a scene. She says her and Kudrow used to go into fits of laughter.

“You and I would always get into these fits of laughter because… you were about to hit your punchline, and you would do this adorable thing where you would break,” Aniston said. “You would say the punchline, and you would always turn to the audience and say, ‘I’m sorry, it’s really funny.'”

“We were terrible”

Kudrow explains she didn’t want to ruin the punchline. Aniston agrees saying she had the ability to giggle and break down during the punchline.

She went on explaining that her character as Lisa also thought whatever Phoebe said or did was funny. Aniston calls it endearing because of which she broke down into laughter.

“We were terrible,” she recalls.

Kudrow continues the conversation revealing that their time on the show was so positive. Because of which she finds ‘commitment issues’ with other series.

“It’s not like, ‘Oh, it was such hard work for 10 years.’ It’s not that,” she explained. “It was that I know that show worked because we all committed to each other too. It wasn’t just committing to a role, committing to a contract. We all still love each other. Our cast is like that, and that’s why that worked. I think part of me died. I can’t do that again.”

The cast of Friends will get a chance to reunite again. Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matthew Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston will all come together for HBO Max Special later this year.

The creator of the show says that they should be starting to film it by August if the pandemic restrictions allow them to.

Aniston says it would be really fun if they get to reunite again. Kudrow agrees saying she cannot wait to do that. She also reveals that they don’t have all the information, so they are also meant to be surprised by a few things.

“We know it’s not scripted, that we know,” Aniston noted. “I will not be Rachel, although I kind of am. Well, we’re all sort of little fragments of them. Not really, but yeah.”

The Friends reunion special on HBO is due to be filmed later this year, with co-creator Marta Kauffman saying recently that it could be done as soon as August.