“That’s when I think I really took it in, you know, what these shows do mean to us,” the “Comeback” star said.

Lisa Kudrow still gets ‘emotional’ remembering Friends’ impact after 9/11

"That's when I think I really took it in, you know, what these shows do mean to us," the "Comeback" star said.

By Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel

Wesley Stenzel is a news writer at **. He began writing for EW in 2022.

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on March 26, 2026 8:55 p.m. ET

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Lisa Kudrow in Austin on March 15, 2026. Credit:

Erika Goldring/Getty

Lisa Kudrow still thinks about the way that *Friends* affected its viewers after 9/11.

The *Comeback* star reflected on the legacy of the legendary NBC sitcom in a new video interview with *Vanity Fair*, noting how fans of the show expressed their appreciation toward her after acts of terrorism shocked the nation.

"After 9/11, I understood how important entertainment really is, and how important comedies are, and how important *Friends* was to people," Kudrow said. "Because we do need that escape."

Lisa Kudrow on 'Friends'.

The actress, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay on all 10 seasons of the sitcom, said that she remembers poignant interactions with grateful fans after the fall of the Twin Towers.

"I would drive home from the set, from *Friends*, and people, you're at a stoplight and the car next to you, someone would look over and go, 'Ahh!'" she recalled. "After 9/11, it still gets me a little emotional, I have to say. Someone would look over and just go, 'Thank you,' like, about to cry, and just say, 'Thank you.' And I fully understood what they meant."

Kudrow said that those moments marked a turning point in her understanding of her work's impact. "That's when I think I really took it in, you know, what these shows do mean to us," she said. "And [I] felt very proud to be contributing to a break for people."

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The *Romy and Michele's High School Reunion* actress previously expressed similar sentiments in a 2013 interview with the Television Academy. "I think it was a relief that these were New Yorks that didn't have 9/11," Kudrow said of *Friends* and fellow NBC series *Will & Grace*.

The actress remembered that after the attacks, "All you did was watch the news" every day. "And it was just so many horrifying stories," she said. "It was family members talking about who was still missing, and would they ever find them, and who didn't make it. It was just non-stop *that*."

Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, and David Schwimmer on 'Friends'.

Danny Feld/NBCUniversal via Getty

Kudrow remembered wondering how the attacks would impact a new episode of *Will & Grace*. "I put on the TV and it was *Will & Grace*, and I thought, 'Okay, ugh, I wonder who they knew in the Towers,' as if that was gonna come up in the show," she recalled. "And *then* I realized, 'Oh, wait! This is a world where it's not ever going to happen.' And I almost started crying from relief."

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*Friends* ran from 1994 to 2004, which meant that its last three seasons aired after 9/11.

Kudrow said that she has been rewatching the show after the death of her costar Matthew Perry. "It’s just celebrating how hilarious he was," she said. "And that is what I want to remember [about him]."

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Source: “EW Comedy”