In a recent interview on the Jess Cagle Podcast With Julia Cunnigham, Lisa Kudrow opened up about how it wasn’t an easy job for her to score Phoebe Buffay’s role and that she had to do another audition to be in the sitcom ‘Friends’.
As she was removed from director Jim Burrows previous show ‘Frasier’, Kudrow said she had to prove to him that she was the right fit for the role of Phoebe Buffay. The actress said she was “mistakenly cast” at the time in ‘Frasier’.
Speaking about Burrows’ thoughts on her starring as Phoebe, she said, “I knew that Jim clocked that I was wrong from the table read and so I thought, ‘Oh he doesn’t like me or what I do.'”
Kudrow admitted that she was asked to do a special audition for Burrows. This she said she found out later. Other cast members were not asked for extra auditions. She said, “I thought maybe everyone had to do it, but I found out a few years ago that I was the only one. Just to make sure that it was all OK with Jimmy that I played Phoebe.”
Kudrow finally earned Burrow’s trust and she bagged the role. Her casting as Phoebe Buffay got Kudrow six Emmy nominations and she also bagged the supporting actress award in a comedy series Emmy for her role as Phoebe in the show’s fourth season.
