Lisa Kudrow was fired from Frasier after being cast as the show’s producer Roz Doyle opposite Kelsey Grammer and she admitted the exit was “devastating”.
Lisa Kudrow has admitted she was left devastated after being axed from Frasier.
The Friends star, 62, had been cast as producer Roz Doyle alongside Kelsey Grammer in the title role.
However, she was later replaced by Peri Gilpin before the pilot episode was filmed.
Speaking on the Smartless podcast, Kudrow called her departure devastating, adding: “I didn’t film it [the pilot]. I got fired from ‘Frasier’.”
She went on to explain how director James Burrows stopped filming during a run-through for the pilot episode, saying: This isn’t working. I was trying to like [ask], ‘What can I do?’
“But I think they did make a casting mistake because I went to the network with Perri Gilpin. I think they were just correcting a mistake. Perri should have always been Roz.”
However, Kudrow went on to land her iconic role in Friends after a brief stint on Mad About You.
The actress explained: “I did a guest star on ‘Mad About You’, they had me back, I’d already done a guest star the first season.
“So now I’m there for a different character [just called ‘waitress’] and my agent said, ‘You’re not doing this’ … [I was] not in a position to say no.
“It’s to me the best show and I’m doing it.”
Following her initial appearance, she was invited back for five more episodes, exclaiming: “There’s my rent for the year!”
Fortuitously, Jeffrey Klarik, the show’s writer/producer, recommended Lisa for the role of Phoebe Buffay when his partner David Crane was assembling the cast of ‘Friends’.
Lisa found herself auditioning in front of her former ‘Frasier’ director James Burrows once again for her ‘Friends’ role.
Despite leaving the audition feeling it was “hopeless” she was ultimately cast, a decision that entirely transformed her life.
