Lisa Kudrow

**Tonya Mosley** (0:00)
This is Fresh Air, I'm Tonya Mosley.
Before my guest, Lisa Kudrow was famous. Back when she was doing improv, she created a character, an actress determined to stay in show business no matter what it cost her. That character eventually became Valerie Cherish, the relentlessly optimistic actress who has been chasing her comeback since 2005 Here she is in the show's first season, trying to get the title of her new reality show just right.

**Lisa Kudrow** (0:29)
This is my comeback. All right. I'm going to take that again. Okay. So this is my cup. Jane, I'm sorry. The camera keeps moving in and out. It's always going to be moving. Just keep going. Yeah. Oh, I know. I know. It's just, I don't know if I should wait for it to settle or. That's right. Yeah. Oh, right. Yeah. That's right. This one's always going to be moving because that one is stationary. Got it. Okay. Here we go.
This is my comeback.
You know what? I want to do another.

**Tonya Mosley** (1:07)
That's Valerie at the beginning of a comeback. She'll spend the next 21 years trying to pull off. Kudrow developed Valerie for HBO with writer and director Michael Patrick King, building a character who wants to be back on television so badly, that she will endure almost anything, demotions, humiliations, and writers half her age who barely hide what they think of her. Now in the show's final season, Valerie finally gets what she has been chasing, the lead in a network sitcom. The catch? AI is writing the scripts.
The role has Kudrow up for two Emmys this year, one for acting and one for writing. It's the latest chapter in a career that includes 10 seasons as Phoebe on Friends, whose finale drew more than 50 million viewers. She won her first Emmy for that role in 1998
Her credits run long, so here are just a few. Web Therapy, the improvised comedy she co-created, playing a therapist who conducts very short sessions online. Who do you think you are? The genealogy series she executive produced for 11 seasons, and Romeo and Michelle's High School Reunion, a sequel announced earlier this summer. Lisa Kudrow, welcome back to Fresh Air. Hi.

**Lisa Kudrow** (2:18)
Thank you. Nice to be back.

**Tonya Mosley** (2:20)
Yes.
You and Michael have this way of catching Hollywood just at moments of really big change. And we saw that throughout every season of The Comeback over the last 21 years. And Valerie is finally getting what she wants for this particular season. She's got her own sitcom. She is the lead, but it is written by AI.

**Lisa Kudrow** (2:41)
Right.

**Tonya Mosley** (2:42)
Tell me why you all felt like this was the perfect situation for Valerie to be in. How did you all even come to this?

**Lisa Kudrow** (2:50)
The premise alone offers so many layers and areas to explore. And there's a threat that everyone's responding to.
And Valerie's the one who's, okay, no problem because there'll be a camera on me.

**Tonya Mosley** (3:06)
That's so interesting, because the first season, the threat was reality television. Then the second season, it was really like the docudrama type series thing.

**Lisa Kudrow** (3:17)
Right, premium cable, half-hour, single camera, no jokes.

**Tonya Mosley** (3:22)
Yeah. She's like a mixture of a lot of different people. It's someone that you came up with very early in your career. How did you come up with the idea?

**Lisa Kudrow** (3:29)
Well, she was nowhere near as fleshed out. In The Groundlings, I did a character monologue called Your Favorite Actress on a Talk Show.

**Tonya Mosley** (3:36)
And Groundlings is the improv theater group here in Los Angeles.

**Lisa Kudrow** (3:39)
That's right. And so it was just that one character monologue. And she's on a talk. She's on Johnny Carson, who was still the host of The Tonight Show. And she hadn't been on in a long time. And it's just watching her try to spin everything and act like she's in control. And then just the phoniness, that's the one thing that made me laugh about her on that, in that monologue that made me laugh when she looks at the audience and she's saying, the environment is real important to me.
So important, it really should be. And looks out at the audience and just says, people, please, please save the planet as a favor to me. I'll love you for it.
Because I would see actors sort of acting like, well, everyone will do what I say.

**Tonya Mosley** (4:30)
She also, especially in the first season, she almost felt delusional. No one knew how to take her. She seemed oblivious to how other people reacted to her.