Lisa Kudrow will always remember her late costar Matthew Perry thanks, in part, to old episodes of their hit TV show, Friends.
“After Matthew passed away, there were marathons [on TV] and that was really comforting watching the show,” Kudrow, 62, said during a Friday, March 27, appearance on the U.K.’s Capital FM radio show. “Also because it makes me laugh, and there he was.”
Perry, who died in 2023, and Kudrow starred on the hit NBC sitcom opposite Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.
“He was so funny, I mean, the funniest,” Kudrow recalled on Friday, referring to Perry’s role as the sarcastic Chandler Bing. “Sorry to everybody else, but truly.”
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Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons, initially didn’t watch the show in its heyday.
“I didn’t watch every episode while we were shooting, I had a kid and none of us were [watching],” the Comeback actress recalled. “It was, like, ‘Oh, it’s Thursday night [at] 8 o’clock?’ We were on too early.”
After watching Friends decades later, Kudrow can now admit that Phoebe is a “funny character.”
“Everyone is making me laugh my ass off,” she added. “Then, you realize how important that kind of escape [on TV] with a laugh that makes you feel good that there are people connecting … [and] are there for each other. It’s just important, kind of, healing.”
News broke in October 2023 that Perry died at age 54. The Los Angeles Medical Examiner later confirmed that the actor died from “the acute effects of ketamine.” (Five individuals were subsequently charged in connection with his death.)
Kudrow was among Perry’s Friends costars who offered social media tributes in the wake of death.
“Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts. Then… You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded,” Kudrow wrote via Instagram in November 2023, recalling the origins of her friendship with Perry. “Thank you for that. Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY.”
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She added, “Thank you for your open heart in a six-way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’ Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant. Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you. Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
