There's nothing like a good ol' Friends rewatch if you're looking for some lighthearted comfort. For Lisa Kudrow, though, it's a different experience now — but she's revisiting the hit sitcom that she starred in following the death of co-star Matthew Perry to help keep his memory alive.
"Honestly, I wasn't able to watch it because it's too embarrassing to watch yourself. But if I make it about Matthew, then that's okay," Kudrow told The Hollywood Reporter while promoting her upcoming Apple TV+ series, Time Bandits. "And it's just celebrating how hilarious he was — and that is what I want to remember [about him]."
"I'm laughing out loud, and everyone is hilarious," she continued of her rewatch experience. "I'm blown away by Courteney Cox. I'm blown away by Jen [Aniston]. Matthew, obviously, is just uniquely hilarious. No one ever knew that cadence or comedic rhythm before him. Matt LeBlanc is hilarious. And David Schwimmer, too. Sometimes I even laugh at what I've done," Kudrow laughed.
And it's that laughter that she remembers most fondly about making the show. "You're just laughing all day long, basically, in between the scenes, because these are funny people," she recalled. "And especially someone like Matthew, whose goal was, 'How many laughs can I get in real life every day?' So we were always laughing so hard, tears were flying out of our faces."
Kudrow added, "I think the world is remembering him the way he wanted to be remembered. I think that's happening [already]."
Last October, Perry was found dead in his hot tub at age 54, with the autopsy revealing that he died "from the acute effects of anesthetic ketamine." His death is currently under criminal investigation, with the DEA and LAPD trying to determine how the actor accessed the ketamine and accumulated so much of it in his system. (He had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety prior to his overdose, but his last treatment had been a full week before his death.)
When the news of Perry's passing broke, Kudrow, Cox, Aniston, LeBlanc and Schwimmer issued a joint statement, writing, "We were more than just cast mates. We are a family."