Lisa Kudrow says she was the only Friends star who had to do an extra audition (And here’s why)

Everyone has their favorite Friends character, but what about a favorite Friends star? Out of the main six, including Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer, most fans would agree they are all talented. But of course, some of the actors went on to become bigger stars with bigger roles after their time at Central Perk wrapped.

Regardless of which actor you believe is the best, it looks like Kudrow had a tougher time than her former co-stars at landing the role.

Kudrow memorably portrayed Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons of the NBC sitcom, and viewers absolutely fell in love with the character. At this point, we can’t even imagine another actor stepping into the part. But while auditioning for Friends, Kudrow apparently had to do an extra audition for one of the directors,  while the other main actors did not. Here’s what the actress had to say about the situation.

Why TV director Jim Burrows wasn’t sure of Lisa Kudrow for Friends

As reported by the New York Post, Kudrow stopped by The Jess Cagle Podcast w/ Julia Cunningham, where she recalled the audition process for Friends. Because she already had a history with TV director Jim Burrows before trying out, you’d think she’d have an easier time getting the role of Phoebe. But it was actually the opposite.

As it turns out, Burrows had fired Kudrow from the TV show Frasier, so she had to do an extra audition for him for the role in Friends. “I was cast in Frasier as Roz — mistakenly cast. I didn’t know that at the time,” Kudrow recalled “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 as under the impression that all the main Friends cast had to do the extra audition, but she was mistaken, recalling: “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.”

The 59-year-old actress went on to reveal how frustrated she was with Burrows, especially because he ended up directing the Friends pilot. “So I said, ‘Ugh, f**k, Jimmy Burrows is directing this.’ It was more like in defeat than anger,” Kudrow remembered. After a little incident while filming, however, Kudrow was able to trust Burrows and seemingly all was fine from there.

Who do you think is the strongest actor from Friends? For a refresher, you can now stream all 10 seasons on HBO Max.