Lisa Kudrow is "celebrating" Matthew Perry's humor by rewatching Friends despite getting embarrassed by her own acting

Lisa Kudrow joined The Hollywood Reporter on a promotion run for her upcoming TV series Time Bandits on Apple TV+. In the interview, published Wednesday, June 26, 2024, she also discussed what made her decide to revisit old episodes of her 90s sitcom, Friends.

While Kudrow is admittedly mortified about watching herself in the show that made her a household name, she does it for one reason alone—to celebrate her late co-star, Matthew Perry's humor.

"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 OK."

Lisa Kudrow further noted:

"[And] it's just celebrating how hilarious he was—and that is what I want to remember [about him]."

It's her way of paying tribute to her late co-star who passed away suddenly in October 2023 due to acute effects of ketamine, although the criminal investigation about his cause of death continues.

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Lisa Kudrow shares admiration for Friends co-stars after rewatching show

The actress was one of the six best friends in the show who live in the same apartment complex in New York, playing alongside Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, and David Schwimmer. The NBC sitcom aired its debut episode in 1994 and continued for 10 seasons.

Talking about revisiting old Friends episodes in honor of Perry, Kudrow said:

"I'm laughing out loud, and everyone is hilarious."

The actress has a newfound appreciation for her co-stars after rewatching parts of the series that ended in 2004. She noted:

"I'm blown away by Courteney Cox. I'm blown away by Jen. Matthew, obviously, is just uniquely hilarious. No one ever knew that cadence or comedic rhythm before him. Matt LeBlack is hilarious. And David Schwimmer too."

And while she mentioned that looking at herself in the show was "embarrassing," Lisa Kudrow admitted that she sometimes laughed looking at her character as Phoebe Buffay in Friends.

It's been two decades since the show ended, and the actress admitted that she barely remembers what happened in the series. However, there is one thing that she remembers quite well—the happiness the rest of the cast experienced while on set, and it was largely because of Perry. She said:

"You're just laughing all day long, basically, in between the scenes, because these are funny people. And especially someone like Matthew, whose goal was: How many laughs can I get in real life every day?"

She recalled the cast members were "laughing so hard" while they were filming the show. At some point, she said, "tears were flying out of their faces" because they couldn't contain their laughter.

When asked how she hopes the rest of the world remembers the late actor, Kudrow simply said that she thinks "the world is remembering him the way he wanted to be remembered."

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Lisa Kudrow's upcoming TV adaptation of the 1981 fantasy classic by Terry Gilliam, Time Bandits, premieres on Apple TV+ on July 24.