Lisa Kudrow Calls Out “Mean Stuff Going On Behind The Scenes” Of ‘Friends’ & Writers Discussing “Sexual Fantasies” With Her Female Co-Stars

Lisa Kudrow is looking back at her time on the set of Friends and calling out some of the toxic masculine behavior from the writing team, which was “mostly men.”

Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on the NBC sitcom for 10 seasons, talked to The Times of London, where she opened up about the “mean stuff going on behind the scenes.”

“Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response, they could be like, ‘Can’t the bitch f***ing read? She’s not even trying. She f***ed up my line,'” Kudrow told the publication an interview posted on April 23.

She continued, “And we know that back in the room the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney. It was intense.”

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Kudrow noted that “it could be brutal, but these guys — and it was mostly men in there — were sitting up until 3am trying to write the show so my attitude was, ‘Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matter.'”

In 1999, Amaani Lyle, who was a writers’ assistant on the comedy series, sued three male writers for sexual harassment. She claimed she had to listen to the writers discuss fantasies about Aniston and Cox. Lyle ultimately lost the case as the court ruled that the speech was not directed at her and was part of the writing process.

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4 Comments

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• Anonymous on April 28, 2026 3:09 pm

  She was getting $1,000,000 per episode, 22 episodes a year. Funny how she didn’t complain about that.

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• Anonymous on April 28, 2026 3:08 pm

  Considering the show ended 20 years ago and she still makes $20m annually on residuals…. a few dirty jokes behind closed doors was totally fine.

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• Anonymous on April 28, 2026 3:04 pm

  Actors have one job. Not to mess up the writer’s lines.

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• Anonymous on April 28, 2026 2:48 pm

  Oh.

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