Lisa Kudrow Discusses Friends Sexual Harassment from Writers

There are some quotes you read where your immediate reaction is: “Ew! That’s nasty. Who would ever say anything like this out loud?” But then you realize the out-of-pocket quote was from the 90s. Lisa Kudrow reflected on her time on Friends, and while she enjoyed her time with the cast, there was some inappropriate behavior coming from the writing staff. “Oh no, there was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” Kudrow told The Times of London. She explained that the writers’ room was mostly men who were disrespectful towards the women on the show, insulting the cast for their performance. She explained, “Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response they could be like, ‘Can’t the bitch fucking read? She’s not even trying. She fucked up my line.’ And we know that back in the room the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney. It was intense.”

“Oh, it could be brutal, but these guys — and it was mostly men in there — were sitting up until 3am trying to write the show so my attitude was, ‘Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matter,’ ” Kudrow stated. Friends writers’ assistant Amaani Lyle sued Warner Bros. and three writers/producers, Adam Chase, Gregory Malins, and Andrew Reich, for sexual harassment in 2000, but lost the case because the comments were not directed towards her.