Lisa Kudrow may have hated filming the opening credits sequence for Friends even more than hearing the studio audience laugh too long.
During an interview on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, the actor reminisced about the late Matthew Perry, spurring her to tell a hilarious and bittersweet story about her former co-star — and how their show’s now-iconic opening could be viewed as an homage to him.
“Honest to God, shooting those titles in the fountain was a nightmare,” Lisa said, before going on to explain that the series’ intro was filmed late at night when the water in the fountain was extremely cold.
“We’d done, I think, 500 takes of dancing,” Lisa said, describing it as “unmotivated”.
Noting that she doesn’t like any kind of “discomfort, at all”, she remembered getting pretty cranky toward the end of the shoot, snapping at crew members who suggested she play with a scarf.
“I was a real joy,” Lisa remarked, poking fun at herself.
“And it was so cold, and we had to keep doing it,” she continued. “They said, ‘We’re going to do one more take.’ And he [Perry] said: ‘One more? OK. Can’t remember a time I wasn’t in a fountain.’”
Lisa continued to imitate her late friend, mimicking his unique cadence when he cracked jokes.
“Seriously. Can’t remember a time I wasn’t wet,” Lisa recalled Matthew snarking. “What, are we wet? In a fountain? What, are we dancing in a fountain?”
She added: “I don’t know when I’ve laughed so hard.”
The Emmy nominee also noted that this happened before Matthew’s comedic way of speaking was written into his Friends character, Chandler Bing, and that the whole cast was tickled by his delivery.
“You see us laughing, and it’s because ... [the crew said] ‘Ready, we’re going to go again,’ [and Matthew said] ‘What, are we going at it again? Are we going to do it again?’” Lisa said, noting that the cast was “laughing hysterically, just doubled over — and that’s in the titles”.
So, according to Lisa, the laughter in the Friends intro is completely genuine, but it’s the result of Matthew Perry’s sarcastic response to the absurd situation.
Her loving anecdote — which she’s also shared in the past — adds some context to a story about the intro that set decorator Greg Grande recounted to Entertainment Weekly in 2022, though he remembered the actors being far less grumpy.
When the magazine asked Grande how the cast ended up in the fountain in the first place, he said: “To my best recollection, that wasn’t a scripted thing. ... It was more impromptu.
“As [the actors] got later into the evening, they had more fun with the back and forth. They were just happy to hang out and have a few cocktails, probably. I don’t want to say who started it, but one of them did, and they ended up inside the fountain. And that was some of the best footage. It was kind of an impromptu, wonderful moment.”
Thanks to Lisa, fans now know that the reason it was so magical is because a wet, crabby Matthew couldn’t be any funnier.