Lisa Kudrow Thinks We're All Living in Valerie Cherish's World Now
Nearly 20 years after The Comeback first aired, Lisa Kudrow discusses the return of the cult comedy—and why modern fame mirrors her most cringe-worthy character.
In 2005, you debuted The Comeback, a sitcom you cocreated and starred in about a struggling TV actor who does an embarrassing reality TV show to revive her career. It was canceled, brought back in 2014, then canceled again. Now you’re reviving it for a third and final season. Have you found getting into your character, Valerie Cherish, only once every decade challenging?
It’s a completely different landscape to be famous now. Everyone is publishing themselves or broadcasting themselves and curating what their life looks like for public consumption. So everyone’s Valerie, basically.
Your cocreator, Michael Patrick King, has said that the original show was a much bigger hit in New York than among industry people in Los Angeles. Do you still get people who say, “I love you, but I cannot watch that show!” Is it a little too real?
No, not anymore. Everyone’s immune. The show originally felt like one humiliation or punishment after another. Now everyone’s signing up for that.
In 2005, if you had written that someone was interviewed while eating spicy chicken wings, that would’ve seemed far-fetched. But now, thanks to the YouTube show Hot Ones, that’s part of an Oscar campaign. Are you having a hard time finding things to put Valerie through in season 3? Can you even humiliate someone like Valerie now?
That’s an interesting question. No. The idea of Valerie changed from season 1 to 2. In the second season, we saw her stand up for herself and fight for her marriage. After that, I heard a lot of people say, “She finally became a human being!” Sometimes desperation or stress makes you feel like everything has to fall away in service of something that’s deemed really important.
Do you have anyone in your DMs asking to do a cameo?
We’re trying not to do big stunt casting. It’s whoever Valerie runs into. We do have some pretty great actors playing parts, though.
Your best-known role is Phoebe from Friends. The entire cast of Friends ultimately found success, both critically and commercially, after the sitcom ended in 2004. Did you always sense the cast would have staying power?
I never thought that Friends would be the end for any of us. While we were shooting, we were already doing other things. I thought I would do more independent films. I knew I wasn’t going to do another sitcom. Having been on one of the most successful ones ever, I didn’t see myself doing that. The Comeback felt like TV’s version of an independent film.
Between seasons of Friends, you did shoot many independent films, like The Opposite of Sex and Happy Endings. Did they feel like a risk at the time?
I read the script for The Opposite of Sex and thought, This seems too good to be true. It was Don Roos, who cowrote Single White Female, and I just fully trusted the script. Independent movies didn’t feel like a risk, because if they didn’t do well, no one saw them.
You started as a member of the Groundlings, the improv group in L.A. Are there any characters from those days you think about revisiting?
There’s a character that I did that’s definitely an older person, so I’ve been waiting. I think I’m old enough now where I could do her, probably animated.
Kudrow wears a Celine jacket and skirt; Prada shoes.
Is there anyone you’ve held up as a role model for your own career?
Bob Newhart. Lucille Ball, too. On I Love Lucy, the things they did were outrageous, but they meant it with all their heart. It was comedic acting—it wasn’t shtick acting.
If you could tell an upcoming comedic actor one thing, what would it be?
Improvisation is really great. It helps with finding out what your instincts are and what’s your voice. You feel it in your bones. Catherine O’Hara, Martin Short. As I’m talking right now, I’m thinking, Boy, I should get back and take an improv class.
Hair and makeup by Brett Freedman for Hourglass Makeup at Celestine Agency. Produced by Get It Productions; Producer: Blanca Balleste; Photo Assistants: Kevin Faulkner, Sabrina Victoria; Retouching: Lena Abujbara; Fashion Assistant: Abigail Jones; Production Assistant: Caro Knapp; Tailor: Irina Tshartaryan at Susie’s Custom Designs; Special Thanks to The Luckman Club at Soho House West Hollywood.
