Friends star Lisa Kudrow has admitted that the show's live audience sometimes "irritated" her during the taping of the series.
The star, who famously played Phoebe Buffay on the comedy, admitted in a new interview that she wasn't a fan of audiences "laughing for too long" during the taping.
"It wasn't that funny," she told the Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend podcast. "That's why. It wasn't an honest response and it irritated me.
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"Now you're just ruining the timing of the rest of the show. There are other lines… Sometimes I would just look out if they'd been laughing too long, and sometimes I would just look out and go, 'Come on'. Really angry."
Kudrow went on to note that "a TV show is not for the studio audience" and is "made for the TV viewers at home".
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"That's who we are in service to," she continued. "If it were a stage play, yeah laugh as long as you want. I'll figure out things to keep my character busy waiting to continue with it. That's fine.
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"But then it's being filmed and now I'm just sort of standing there. And then you do things that you hate, just like nod, 'Yeah, I said that.' It's terrible. I think they instructed our audience not to do anything like that."
The star further revealed that they "did so many takes" during filming, and audiences eventually stopped laughing.
"It then made the writers think, 'It doesn't work.' It worked the first time," she added. "So they would come up with alternates."
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Friends originally ran between 1994 and 2004, and co-star Courteney Cox recently marked 20 years since the show ended in a moving Instagram tribute.
The star shared an Instagram Reel of the cast taking their final bow in Monica's apartment, writing: "It's been 20 years since the series finale of Friends. I don't know how we were able to act through all the tears. Forever grateful."
Last year, Kudrow, Cox and Friends cast members Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer paid tribute to fellow star Matthew Perry following his death aged 54.
Friends streams on Netflix in the UK, where it also airs daily on Comedy Central. In the US, you can stream the show on Max.
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Sam is a freelance reporter and sub-editor who has a particular interest in movies, TV and music. After completing a journalism Masters at City University, London, Sam joined Digital Spy as a reporter, and has also freelanced for publications such as NME and Screen International. Sam, who also has a degree in Film, can wax lyrical about everything from Lord of the Rings to Love Is Blind, and is equally in his element crossing every 't' and dotting every 'i' as a sub-editor.
