With “Analyze This” open nationwide, it’s not just a good time for Lisa Kudrow, it’s a great time. Last September she won an Emmy for her role as the ditzy, but surprisingly perceptive, Phoebe on “Friends.” In January Kudrow picked up a best-supporting-actress award from the New York Film Critics Circle for her turn as the repressed schoolteacher with a biting wit in “The Opposite of Sex.” As for “Analyze This,” it sure looks like a hit. Harold Ramis’s comedy concerns a shrink (Billy Crystal) who helps a goodfella (Robert De Niro) get in touch with his inner mobster. Kudrow charms even in a smallish role as Crystal’s fiancee, a television anchorwoman who wants Crystal to ditch his volatile patient.
Kudrow may be most famous for the queen of cluelessness she plays on “Friends,” but in person she’s not the least bit Phoebe. She’s serene, thoughtful and grounded. Dressed in a simple leather jacket and slim-fitting pants, the woman who’s been called “a cavalcade of fashion woe” clearly has style. She’s just not dressing to impress the world. If Kudrow had given any thought to walking the red carpet at movie premieres or paparazzi cameras catching her outfit from every angle, she might not have become an actress at all. For years, she avoided acting. The daughter of a prominent Los Angeles physician, Kudrow studied biology at Vassar and returned to L.A. to pursue a career in science. Jon Lovitz, a friend of her brother’s, encouraged her to try her hand at improvisational comedy. “I don’t know how I could’ve come back to L.A. and not be an actor,” says Kudrow, who is married to Michel Stern, a French advertising executive. “It’s too much, it’s in the air.” In 1993 she landed a tiny recurring role on “Mad About You” as Ursula, the ditzy waitress. The creators of “Friends” invited her to expand her Teri Garr-like routine by playing Ursula’s twin sister, Phoebe, on the new show.
The cast of “Friends” has had a notoriously rocky time making the leap to movies. Anybody up for a Matt LeBlanc film festival? Kudrow is the first to achieve both critical and commercial movie success. Two years ago, in her first big movie role, Kudrow gave her fans more of the same loopy humor that made her such a popular Friend. “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion,” which could also have been called “Phoebe and Ursula’s High School Reunion,” was a modest hit. It seemed Kudrow was destined to play the same character over and over–not that she minded. “There are a lot of actors that did the same thing until they retired because that’s what they were good at. There’s nothing wrong with that,” Kudrow says. “It’s work. If it happens to be different, fine. ‘Opposite of Sex’ was, and that was lucky.”
But “The Opposite of Sex” turned out to be more than lucky. Although the small independent film starred Christina Ricci, Kudrow stole the movie with her vicious humor and powerful presence. “There’s a small shot where she and Martin Donovan come in from her brother’s funeral with the urn,” says director Don Roos. “She made me cry. She doesn’t say a word. She just comes in and sits on a chair. What she has as an actress is the ability to make an audience understand pain.” Like those old comedy and tragedy masks, Kudrow flipped from laughter into sadness in an instant, and she won the critics over. Many believe Kudrow deserved an Academy Award nomination for the role. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi, who doesn’t even know the actress, sounds indignant. “To be really honest, I never saw her on television,” says Mizrahi. “I never saw the–what is it?–the ‘Friends’ show. I saw ‘The Opposite of Sex,’ and I thought, ‘She’s fabulous.’ It was all too subtle for them to nominate her. The award will end up going to something vulgar and crass. And that’s really a sin.”
Kudrow’s day job is still going swimmingly. Nineteen million viewers check “Friends” out every week–its biggest audience yet, which is a rare feat for any show in its sixth year. But at the point when many sitcom stars begin to worry about being typecast, the actress is making a smooth transition to film. “She loves that show,” says Roos. “She’ll be with it as long as it’s on the air. But she’ll have a huge career in movies. She doesn’t just have to play a blond bimbo.”
Kudrow’s no bimbo in “Analyze This”–when De Niro’s mobster crashes her engagement party, she promptly tosses him out. The actress is currently shooting both “Friends” and “Hanging Up,” a comedy about three sisters with Meg Ryan and Diane Keaton. And her office is flooded with scripts she’s considering for “Friends’ " summer hiatus. The Academy may have snubbed Kudrow, but directors and producers want to work with her. “She has wonderful eyes for the camera,” says Roos. “There’s suffering there, frustration and loneliness. All a film actress has is her eyes. She has very expressive eyes.” Right now, Kudrow’s making eyes at Hollywood. It’s clear that she wants to be much more than friends.
