Lisa Kudrow reveals feeling like a 'mountain of a woman' while filming Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox

Actress Lisa Kudrow describes her body image struggles

Lisa Kudrow attends the 'Who Do You Think You Are?' FYC event at Wolf Theatre on June 5, 2018 in North Hollywood, California.
(Image credit: Tibrina Hobson/Getty Images)

Most of us probably know Lisa Kudrow as the upbeat and quirky Phoebe Buffay from the hit '90s sitcom Friends. While her character provided us with upbeat positivity, Lisa herself recently opened up about negative body image issues she experienced while appearing on the show. 

On Wednesday, the 55-year-old actress appeared on Sirius XM's The Howard Stern Show with her castmates Courteney Cox and Jennifer Anniston. While we typically hear the cast reflect on the positive moments from filming Friends, Lisa revealed that she felt "different" from her castmates because her body type was "bigger."

"It's not that I felt horrible around them. Fittings were not fun, that's for sure," she explained on the show. "Yeah, I have a different body type. I'm just bigger and sometimes the clothes, when I'd see the show, were so sort of full of volume…it was only this one moment where I hugged both of them but there was no sleeve. It was just like, I enveloped them. I felt like this mountainous thing that swallowed them alive."

This wasn't the first time body image has come up for her. During an appearance on Marc Maron's WTF podcast in 2019, the actress shared that when she was around her co-stars Courteney and Jennifer she felt like, "a mountain of a woman." 


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Since she was taller than the other two actresses, she explained that she felt self-conscious about her build.

"You see yourself on TV and it's that, 'Oh my God, I'm just a mountain of a girl.' I'm already bigger than Courteney and Jennifer," she told the host. "My bones feel bigger. I just felt like this mountain of a woman next to them." 

American actresses Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow of the television comedy, Friend's circa 1995.

(Image credit: Ron Davis/Getty Images)

This gradually led to her becoming very thin while she was on the show as she tried to lose weight to fit in. Lisa revealed that no one seemed to notice the dangerous amount of weight she had lost, and instead, commented on how "good" she looked.

"Unfortunately for a woman, if you're underweight, you look 'good', that's all I ever got," she said. 

The desire to be thinner ended up having an impact on her health and Lisa felt she was constantly sick as a result.

"When I was too thin, I was sick all the time, with colds, sinus infections, some kind of flu. I was always sick," she said.

Since revealing her experience, Lisa said that her body image struggles didn't just go away overnight, it's something she's worked on overtime. 

The 57-year-old actress has also learned that ageing is a "good thing" and she is embracing her age with grace.

"I have a whole battle all the time," she shared. "I end up with, 'So what? So, all right. You're older. That's a good thing. Why is that a bad thing?'" Phoebe would be proud.

Rylee Johnston

Rylee is a U.S. news writer who previously worked for woman&home and My Imperfect Life covering lifestyle, celebrity, and fashion news. Before joining woman&home and My Imperfect Life, Rylee studied journalism at Hofstra University where she explored her interests in world politics and magazine writing. From there, she dabbled in freelance writing covering fashion and beauty e-commerce for outlets such as the TODAY show, American Spa Magazine, First for Women, and Woman’s World.