Apr 27, 2026 9:50pm PT

Lisa Kudrow Says the ‘Friends’ Writers Were ‘Mostly Men’ Who Stayed ‘Up Late Discussing Their Sexual Fantasies’ About Her Female Co-Stars

Jack Dunn

Plus Icon

Jack Dunn

Latest

Lisa Kudrow Says the ‘Friends’ Writers Were ‘Mostly Men’ Who Stayed ‘Up Late Discussing Their Sexual Fantasies’ About Her Female Co-Stars

2 hours ago

Jimmy Kimmel Defends ‘Expectant Widow’ Joke After Donald and Melania Trump Demand ABC Fire Him: ‘It Was Not By Any Stretch of the Definition a Call to Assassination. And They Know That’

3 hours ago

UFC Boss Dana White Says the White House Correspondents’ Dinner Shooting Was ‘F—ing Awesome’: ‘I Literally Took Every Minute of it In’

1 day ago

See All

Samir Hussein/WireImage

Lisa Kudrow recently told The Times of London that she had to endure some “mean stuff” from the writing staff of “Friends,” who were “mostly men,” during her 10-season run on the NBC sitcom. Kudrow, who starred as the free-spirited Phoebe Buffay, said the writers reprimanded the cast for forgetting lines and spent their off-hours fantasizing about her female co-stars.

“There was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” Kudrow said. “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 fucking read? She’s not even trying. She fucked up my line.'”

Popular on Variety

She added that, in the writers’ room, “the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer [Aniston] and Courteney [Cox]. It was intense.”

Kudrow described the writers’ treatment of the cast as “brutal,” but she said she didn’t pay them much mind since most of their illicit behavior happened behind closed doors.

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

The behavior of the “Friends” writing team was famously exposed by Amaani Lyle back in the early 2000s. Lyle, who worked on the show in 1999 on Season 6, brought a lawsuit against Warner Bros. Television for the writers’ room conduct. In the suit, she claimed that the “Friends” scribes frequently made sexual and racist remarks, and as the writers’ assistant, she was forced to take notes on everything that was said in the room. The case eventually made it to the Supreme Court, which ruled against Lyle after deciding the coarse demeanor was a necessary part of the work environment.

Jump to Comments

‘Are We About to Die?’: Host Oz Pearlman Was Right Behind Trump When a Shooter Stormed the White House Correspondents’ Dinner

White House Correspondents Association President Weijia Jiang Says Dinner Shooting ‘Was a Harrowing Moment for Everyone in Attendance’

Trump Addresses Shooting at White House Correspondents’ Dinner: ‘It’s a Dangerous Profession’

NBC News, MS NOW Tamp Down Party Spirit After White House Correspondents’ Dinner Chaos

Mentalist Oz Pearlman Sets Netflix Special — and Dishes on Skeptics, Missteps and Reading Trump’s Mind (EXCLUSIVE)

Trump on ‘60 Minutes’ Rails Against Some Journalists, Then Calls for Holding New White House Correspondents Dinner Within 30 Days

JavaScript is required to load the comments.

Loading comments...

Lisa Kudrow Says the 'Friends' Writers Were 'Mostly Men' Who Stayed 'Up Late Discussing Their Sexual Fantasies' About Her Female Co-Stars