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Lisa Kudrow Reveals Her Most 'Disappointing' Film Role
Lisa Kudrow recently sat for a discussion with Parker Posey as part of Variety's Actors on Actors series, in which the former Friends star reflected on her most 'disappointing' film role, opposite John Travolta.
Kudrow and Posey, who starred together in the 1997 dramedy Clockwatchers, are up for awards consideration this year for their roles in Netflix's No Good Deed and HBO's The White Lotus, respectively. Both also worked with the late writer and director Nora Ephron, though Kudrow's experience with the auteur wasn't as memorable as Posey's.'We were both Nora Ephron ladies back in the '90s,' Posey began. 'What did you do with Nora?'
'I did Hanging Up, which she wrote with [her sister] Delia. Diane Keaton directed it. We had great food every day because Nora was around,' Kudrow reflected, before adding: 'And then I did another movie that Nora directed, and John Travolta was in it—'Was in it?' How's that? It was a John Travolta movie, and I was in it.'
'And he was an angel or something, right?' Posey returned. 'No, that was Michael,' Kudrow corrected her, 'and that was a great movie. This one was disappointing,' she added Kudrow didn't name the movie in the interview, she's referring to Ephron's critically maligned 2000 dark comedy, Lucky Numbers. The film starred Travolta as a local meteorologist and snowmobile salesman who concocts a heist with Kudrow's lottery-number reader to steal the pot. Best known for her romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail, Lucky Numbers saw Ephron attempt an Elmore Leonard-style, post-Tarantino caper to decidedly mixed results.
Though Kudrow's work with Ephron was perhaps not that memorable, both she and Posey warmly recalled receiving unsolicited career advice from their mentor long after they worked with her. 'I remember Nora called me once, I was working on Friends,' Kudrow said, 'and she went, 'When are you finished with this show? Why do you keep doing it?' I was like, 'Well, some good reasons.''Lisa Kudrow Reveals Her Most 'Disappointing' Film Role first appeared on Men's Journal on Jun 9, 2025
