Lisa Kudrow isn’t interested in being a “celebrity”.
Lisa Kudrow
The 57-year-old actress shot to global fame playing Phoebe Buffay in ‘Friends’, but has said she’s never been interested in living her life in the spotlight, and believes being a celebrity is “completely different” from being an actor.
She said: “Celebrity is something completely different from being an actor. You can pursue being a celebrity easily enough. You can show up at parties and it's really doable - but fulfilling yourself and getting roles that really interest you is really hard. For me, whether they were successes or not, I've been happy with the roles I've played. Acting's always been really fulfilling to me.”
Lisa initially thought it was her “job to be a celebrity” when ‘Friends’ became a phenomenon in the 1990s, but admitted she “hated” going to parties to network with other stars or to be seen on the red carpet.
She added: “When friends first took off, I thought it was my job to be a celebrity. I was like ‘Should I go to that party? Should I go now?’ I tried it but I hated it. I really hated it, but I realised that one thing has nothing to do with the other. I could still work as an actor and not be a celebrity.”
And Lisa - who is married to Michel Stern, with whom she has a son Julian - even found the success of ‘Friends’ to be “annoying” at first, because it meant people were interested in her life outside of work.
She explained: “At first it was annoying - but then you start to understand, ‘Oh, they're just pictures that are going to end up somewhere and they will make up a story.’ I’ll know it's not true. My family will know it's not true. My husband will know it's not true. It's almost like there's another character out there. You just have to embrace the fact that that’s what's going to be happening. But it was on a very small scale for me.”
Since ‘Friends’ ended in 2004, more and more stars are finding themselves at the mercy of social media, but Lisa says she doesn’t pay attention to what people say about her.
When asked by OK! magazine if she’s a “fan” of Instagram, she said: “It's fine, I mean, it's not really a burden to me. It’s fun. I don't read all the comments, so I'm not seeing it if anyone’s saying something nasty. That suits me perfectly.”
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