Oh, No! Lisa Kudrow Didn’t Get Phoebe on ‘Friends’ Character Quiz

Lisa Kudrow got real about which ‘Friends’ character she most identifies with ahead of the sitcom’s reunion special — details

Brand new information! Lisa Kudrow perfectly embodied Phoebe Buffay for 10 seasons on Friends. However, in reality, she identifies more with another beloved character from the series.

The actress, 57, divulged during her Wednesday, May 19, appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that she took a BuzzFeed quiz to determine which Friends character she was most like. “I thought I was answering the questions that would bring me to Phoebe, you know? Favorite color? ‘Yellow!’” she explained. “And it just said ‘Rachel.’”

Lisa Kudrow Reveals She Did Not Get Phoebe on ‘Friends’ Character Quiz — The cast of ‘Friends.’ Courtesy of TV Land

Kudrow starred alongside Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Courteney Cox (Monica Geller), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) on the sitcom from 1994 to 2004. Prior to landing the role of Phoebe, she wanted to audition for Rachel.

“It’s funny because when I first read the script and I was going to be auditioning for Phoebe, I saw Rachel and I just went, ‘Oh, that’s like a Long Island JAP — that could be hilarious. I can identify with that more,’” the Comeback alum recalled. “But they said, ‘No, no. Phoebe.’”

Of course, fans loved the casting just as it was, and the show became a massive hit. Twenty-six years later, Kudrow, Aniston, 52, Cox, 56, LeBlanc, 53, Perry, 51, and Schwimmer, 54, came together to film a reunion special in April.

“It was really emotional, and watching it again … I got emotional all over again,” the Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion star told Extra earlier this month. “It’s also really just so thrilling. We got to be together and LeBlanc tells a story like no one else, he is so great. I laugh a lot, that’s my contribution.”

HBO Max released a trailer for the special on Wednesday. The video showed the cast being questioned by James Corden, playing trivia in a scene reminiscent of the season 4 episode “The One With the Embryos” and reciting some of their most iconic lines.

The reunion was shot on Stage 24 of the Warner Bros. Studio, where the series filmed for a decade. Former guest stars Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon, James Michael Tyler, Christina Pickles, Maggie Wheeler and Thomas Lennon will make cameos.

Kudrow noted during her Late Show interview that she once believed Friends would never end. “While I was on Friends, I thought, ‘I will always be working because there’s no end in sight for this show,’” she said. “Yeah, it was on for 10 years. But I just thought, ‘This could go on forever.’”

Friends: The Reunion premieres on HBO Max Thursday, May 27.