The 59-year-old actor admitted that she had never felt conscious of her body or insecure about her appearance until she starred in 'Friends.'
Friends star Lisa Kudrow, who is known for playing our beloved Phoebe Buffay in the nineties sitcom has opened up about her battle with body confidence and insecurities when she was younger. The 59-year-old actor admitted that she had never felt conscious of her body or insecure about her appearance until she starred in the very popular show, which ran for ten long years. Speaking on the Podcrushed podcast Lisa said: "I thought I was just really skinny. I can do whatever, [but] no, especially in high school." When she joined the ensemble cast of friends she started to reflect on images of herself and convinced herself that she needed to make lifestyle changes.
She said, "I look at pictures and say, 'Wow, pictures really distort reality.' And it wasn't until Friends that I realized, 'Oh, I don't look like I thought I looked.' And that's what was so jarring, and that's when it was like, 'Oh, I've got to actually lose weight? Do I have to diet? Shoot.'"
It wasn't only reflecting on the images, but starring alongside Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox who played Rachel Green and Monica Geller also affected her. She said, "It was just seeing myself on the show and seeing myself in clothes and seeing Courteney and Jennifer in clothes." She then clarified," And I'm not trying to say I was overweight, either. I was not. I just had no idea of the shape of my actual body."
Lisa has come a long long way from those distressing days and she now accepts her body. She said, "I just realized... it's okay. This is just what I look like. That's okay. Do what you need to do to be healthy, but this is your body and it's okay." One of the things that helped Lisa Kudrow was telling herself that her goals as an actress were different than the rest. She said, "You only wanted to be a character actress. You’re not going for romantic comedies, romantic lead—you don’t do that,” she said. “That’s not a fun role for you anyway, so knock it off. It’s OK, you can look fine as you are."
She also recognized the fact that she was placing undue pressure on herself, "That’s all in your own head, you’re doing that to yourself,” she said. “No one needs you to be Tom Cruise or as famous as Tom Cruise. For me, at that time, it was Julia Roberts or Meg Ryan. No one is actually requiring that of me."
This was not the first time Kudrow opened up about her insecurities, in an interview with Vogue back in 2019, the actress said, "You see yourself on TV, and it's that, 'Oh my god, I'm just a mountain of a girl'," she said of the thoughts that would run through her mind at the time. "And I'm already bigger than Courteney and Jennifer. [I was] taller, bigger. My bones feel bigger, I just felt like this mountain of a woman next to them."
Over time Kudrow says she has developed a healthy relationship with her body and has learned to embrace aging with a positive outlook.
References:
https://etcanada.com/news/917807/lisa-kudrow-opens-up-on-insecurity-about-her-body-on-friends/
https://www.vogue.com/article/lisa-kudrow-body-images-issues-insecurity-friends-set-aging-confidence
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wicked-ft-lisa-kudrow/id1622070205?i=1000574843986
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Rodin Eckenroth
