Lisa Kudrow Says Phoebe from “Friends ”‘Wasn’t Stupid’ Despite Everyone Labeling the Character ‘Such a Ditz’

Raven BrunnerSun, April 5, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC

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Lisa Kudrow; Lisa Kudrow in 'Friends.'Credit: Griffin Nagel/Peacock/Getty; Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty -

Lisa Kudrow said her Friends character Phoebe Buffay “wasn’t stupid” in a recent interview

“At first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do," the actress said

Friends aired for 10 seasons on NBC from 1994 to 2004

Lisa Kudrow is setting the record straight on her iconic Friends character.

The actress, 62, said Phoebe Buffay from the hit sitcom “wasn’t stupid” while speaking with actress Lily Tomlin for an Interview Magazine article published on ​​Monday, March 30.

“At the time, it was like, 'She’s such a ditz. How is it that you only play ditzes?' And I thought, Is she a ditz? To me, she wasn’t,” Kudrow recalled of the public response to her character.

Lisa Kudrow on 'Friends.'Credit: David Hume Kennerly/Getty Images

When asked who called Phoebe a ditz, she replied, “Everybody. In 1994, it was like, ‘I love her. She’s such a ditz.’ And it’s like, yeah, okay, that was what a ditz was to us. Someone who wasn’t toeing the line.”

The Comeback star emphasized, however, that her character “wasn’t stupid.”

Still, Kudrow said it took some time for her to personally connect with her character, but it eventually happened over the show’s lengthy run.

“At first, Phoebe was very, very far from me. It took a lot of work to justify the things she would say and do. Not in an irritating way—it was fun. Over the course of 10 years, a little bit of her came into me. I lightened up a little more and read some books on spirituality and things, just to try to understand her,” she said.

The NBC sitcom about six friends living in New York City aired from 1994 to 2004. It also starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry.

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Phoebe was a musician who juggled a variety of jobs throughout the series. Kudrow won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her portrayal of the quirky character in 1998.

The actress revisited her time on the beloved show while speaking with Today.com in 2024.

“We loved each other,” she said of her costars. “Going to work every day was heaven. It was too good to be true, but it really was.”

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Lisa Kudrow attends the premiere of Netflix's 'No Good Deed' at TUDUM Theater on Dec. 4, 2024.Credit: Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Kudrow also said starring on the show and having such early success opened the door for her later works.

"Because I was on Friends, I got to create my own shows that didn't have to be as big as Friends, so I could do something like The Comeback or Web Therapy, and that was really fulfilling,” she said at the time.

The Comeback premiered its third and final season on March 22, two decades after its first installment in 2005.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”