Lisa Kudrow

She was actually Ursula on Mad About You before she was Phoebe. The two shows were established to be in the same universe in “The One With Two Parts,” parts one and two. Jamie and Fran end up at Central Perk, see Phoebe, assume she’s Ursula, and think to themselves that it’s God’s way of telling them to eat at home. Which is kind of classist, if you think about it—like Ursula doesn’t have the right to just, like, go out for coffee. She can only be there if she’s working there. To be fair, Ursula barely seems as though she’s working at the restaurant where she actually has a job, but that doesn’t mean she’s automatically a waitress just because they see her somewhere with waitstaff.

Lisa Kudrow is probably the Friend with the widest gap between intelligence and perceived intelligence. She went to Vassar. She is involved in two published papers. She was a research assistant on “Handedness and Headache,” by H.B. Messinger, M.I. Messinger, and L.N. Kudrow. (Her father, Lee.) She is the lead credit on “Conversion Cephalgia: A Clinical Description of 100 Patients.” (“Cephalgia” is the medical term for “headache.” So now you know.) Her original plan, before she got into acting, was to follow in her father’s footsteps. Then her brother’s friend, Jon Lovitz, suggested she join The Groundlings.

There is, obviously, absolutely no reason to assume that a performer and the character they play have the same intelligence level. It’s apparently kind of frustrating to Matt LeBlanc that they do. Kudrow probably has it worse, however, and not just because you almost expect Ursula to have to be reminded to breathe. There’s also the sexism angle. And, honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that Kudrow simply is smarter. No shame—given the work she’s done, she’s probably smarter than a lot of people. Also, you know, she’s blonde, and there’s no few stereotypes there.

It also means it’s easy to underestimate exactly how gifted a comedienne she is. She’s worked with Conan O’Brien to found the original Unexpected Company. Wikipedia says she was the only female member of the Transformers Comedy Troupe, but I can’t find who any of the male members were, so I don’t know. She tried out for Saturday Night Live, though Julia Sweeney got the slot. She’s appeared in a lot of comedies both pre- and post-Friends, and she’s so natural it’s hard to notice how talented she is.

And people absolutely should not sleep on her as Michele. I saw Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion in the theatre and have loved it ever since. The great thing about her in that movie is that Michele is the less intelligent member of a not-terribly-intelligent pair but she’s deeply likable. She’s innocent and pleasant and just wants to be happy. It’s a fun movie with a truly bonkers cast, and Kudrow is a gem in it. It’s another role that plays to her talents so well you can almost fail to realize she’s acting. Even though she very obviously is.