Jennifer Aniston inspired Friends' Phoebe

Jennifer Aniston inspired Friends' Phoebe
Jennifer Aniston inspired Friends' Phoebe (Image credit: PA Wire/Press Association Images)

Jennifer Aniston was the inspiration behind Friends' Phoebe, Lisa Kudrow has revealed. The 46-year-old actress told Easy Living magazine she was not into spiritual living like her kooky character, but Jennifer - who played Rachel - was, so she helped her. Lisa revealed: "Phoebe was so spiritual and 'out there' - and I wasn't at all. Not. At. All. If anyone was it was Jennifer." She added: "She introduced me to certain books that gave me an insight into that world - Phoebe's supposed world - which was a more spiritual realm." The actress also told The Daily Telegraph that even though Friends ended after 10 years and 10 seasons in 2004, she can never escape her character. Lisa said: "People still do call me Phoebe and want to talk on the street. Friends is still on here in the US all the time. I try not to notice the attention when I'm out. "I usually create some imaginary lines depending on where I am. And I don't look at the periphery, like blinkers. I can't help it. I have always been like that. It's like, 'I don't know those people!' I am not good with people." She added: "I'm joking. I'm quite good with people really!" Lisa stars with Vanessa Hudgens in Bandslam which opens August 12.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.