Lisa Kudrow confessed to getting irritated with the live audience on the ‘Friends’ set in a recent chat for the ‘Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend’ podcast. She said the crowd’s reactions were more dramatic than needed during filming:
“Because they were laughing for too long. It wasn’t that funny. That’s why. It wasn’t an honest response and it irritated me. Now you’re just ruining the timing of the rest of the show. There are other lines. Sometimes I would just look out if they’d been laughing too long, and go, ‘Come on.’ Really angry.”
Sitcoms Are Not For Live Audiences, The Actress Thinks
‘Friends’ began production in 1994. Each 22-minute episode took six to eight hours to make due to retakes and script adjustments in response to audience reaction.
So, Kudrow commented on having a live crowd in a TV production:
“A TV show is not for the studio audience. It is made for the TV viewers at home. That’s who we are in service to. If it was a stage play, yeah laugh as long as you want. I’ll figure out things to keep my character busy waiting to continue with it. That’s fine. It’s being filmed and now I’m just standing there … you do like nod, ‘Yeah, I said that.’ It’s terrible. They instructed our audience not to do anything like that, I think.”
Other Cast Members Weren’t Fond Of The Crowd On Set, Either
Acting in front of a live audience was a negative experience for Kudrow’s co-stars, as well. Matthew Perry wrote in his memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing:’
“I felt like I was gonna die if the live audience didn’t laugh, and that’s not healthy for sure. But I could sometimes say a line and the audience wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and sometimes go into convulsions. If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place. I also knew of the six people making that show, only one of them was sick.”
The ‘Friends’ cast reunited for a special titled ‘The One Where They Get Back Together’ in March 2021. They shared their memories on set in the unscripted episode on HBO Max.
