Lisa Kudrow is largely known for her role in Friends, but things could have turned out differently had she not been fired from Frasier.
Kudrow, 61, has become a household name thanks to her cooky portrayal of Pheobe Buffay on the hit show, which ran for over a decade.
However, she recently shared that she was booted from a neighbouring show while talking to the hosts of the SmartLess podcast.
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It all began in 1993, which is the year before she was cast as one of the main six in Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry.
Lisa managed to bag herself the role of Roz Doyle in Frasier, who was part of the leading cast.
In the series, Roz is the producer of Kelsey Grammer’s character Frasier’s radio show and is one of the most beloved characters of the show.
However, Lisa just wasn’t right for the part after making one mistake for the character.
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Lisa explained to co-hosts Sean Hayes, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett: “I didn’t film it. I got fired from Frasier.”
Her ‘devastating’ firing was down to director James Burrows telling her that things ‘weren’t working’ during a scene.
Even though Lisa got pretty final feedback, she was still asking what ‘can I do’ to make it work.
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It turns out, there was nothing that could be done as Peri Gilpin went on to land the role and played the part throughout the show’s 11 seasons.
Unfortunately for Lisa, she was too 'ethereal' for the role, which required something stronger.
She said: “They did make a casting mistake because I went to the network with Peri Gilpin. I think they were just correcting a mistake. Cause Peri should have always been Roz.”
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But it wasn’t long before another opportunity cropped up and she was cast as a waitress called Ursula in the series Mad About You.
Because Lisa was ‘not in a position to say no’, she decided to take the roll and it led to her life changing forever.
She went on to impress the producers so much with her Ursula depiction that she was then cast in Friends.
But her firing from the previous show meant that she was the only cast member who had to audition for her part and James was also directing the show.
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She shared: “When I had my audition, I did it…it was just this small room. He is sitting at a desk. I’m in a chair, and the audition was like a little monologue. And when I’m done, he just went, ‘No notes’. And I thought, ‘Alright. I don’t know what that means. It’s hopeless’.”
Little did she know that the ‘no notes’ comment was a fantastic thing for her as her portrayal of Phoebe was perfect.
So, that meant that was set up until the show eventually ended in 2004, having filmed ten seasons.
You might be wondering why she was fired from the show in the first place, and James actually opened up about this last year with WBUR.
He explained it was a specific scene: “The speech before Frasier goes in and confronts his dad, the Lupe Velez speech, which is the Lupe Velez story, which is she wanted to commit suicide, so she dressed in a very nice robe and walked into the bathroom to get her pills and she slipped, hit her head on the tub and died. Her speech he had to give, but Kelsey is such a strong personality and Lisa’s, what she does great is ethereal and it just didn’t work in that moment.”
Well, it all worked out for the best.
Topics: Friends, TV And Film, Entertainment, Celebrity
Britt Jones