Lisa Kudrow Talks About Her Showtime Hit "Web Therapy"

And just go?

I say like a lot, I don't notice it

unless something's in print,

but I sound like an idiot.

I read like an idiot,

but other than that, I'm not.

My greatest fear is that I look like an idiot.

[Woman] I'm going to try to do an open,

which I'm not very good at,

but I'm going to try, alright?

Welcome to VF Hollywood, I'm

sitting here with Lisa Kudrow,

who has a bunch of new stuff coming out

that I am very excited to talk to her about.

Who Do You Think You Are now is on TLC,

it's an excellent show.

And then the other show, Web Therapy,

which is laugh out loud funny,

started as a little webshow,

and now it's on Showtime, so welcome Lisa.

Hi.

How'd I do, alright?

Great, no that was so good. Okay.

You got Emmy nominated last year, right?

Yeah.

And now it's on Showtime, a major,

obviously a major cable network.

Yes.

How did that come up, this idea

to start a show on the web?

Well, you know, it started in like 2006,

2007, we were asked, do you want

to do a webseries? And you know,

the answer was no.

Because the only webseries we knew about

were pilots that didn't make it,

so you'd chop it up in 5 minute segments

and put them on the internet.

But something with the internet

should be funny because people

are doing kind of personal things

on the internet now. Like looking

for husbands and wives, and

intimate things, and then I went,

oh therapy, like the most intimate thing

you can do, that would be hilarious.

I'm not sure if that's okay, because

I think the names are supposed to be changed.

[Woman] Oh.

And then, L Studio got in touch with us

because they were starting a broadband channel.

Right.

And we said, well this is the only thing we would do,

and they said, great we'll do it.

And we had to come up with the character,

has to be a hideous person to even

offer this ridiculous service, so

we just made her really self serving

and manipulative, and dismissive.

Right, and the Fiona Wallace,

the voice is great, how did you come

up with that voice for her?

There's a woman I know, who is

actually very sexy, poised, intelligent,

she's like the perfect woman. Mmhmm.

Like truly classy, on every level.

And I just thought that's how Fiona

thinks she comes off.

Right. (laughs)

So I'll just take her, and then

process it through the idiocy that

I can't help but bring to anything,

and then throw in those other

horrible characteristics.

The voice is just perfect for it.

Well I don't think it's strange,

it's not like I haven't experienced

someone falling in love with me before.

But it is very soon.

And yet not soon enough.

Exactly, she is horrible.

So dismissive. Yeah.

Just condescending, and yeah, she's awful.

And that's really fun.

I mean you worked with Dan Bucatinsky too,

who I love. Yeah, yeah.

He's a friend of mine.

Emmy nominated.

Emmy nominated. For Scandal.

Indeed. A great bunch of people that come through.

You think of this little webseries,

Meryl Streep, Billy Crystal, Steve Carrel,

Alan Cumming, Rashida Jones, I mean these are just,

and then obviously Lily Tomlin.

Lily Tomlin, oh my God. Yeah.

That who such a coup.

Lily Tomlin is one of my favorites.

I only met her once and it was very quick.

Oh really.

It was like a handshake. She's an icon.

She's a comedy icon. Lily Tomlin.

Did you grow up watching her on the giant chair.

Yes. Edith Ann. I imitated Edith Ann.

I'd go to school, and be Edith Ann,

and it was, oh my God you're wonderful, you know.

Thank you. (laughs)

Little someone named Lily Tomlin

came up with that. But yeah, she,

I mean, so Lily, the first time we had her,

and she met with us and was there for a while,

and came up with all this extra stuff,

like, hey she should be smoking pot.

And she should be going nuts, and

just threw all this fantastic stuff into it.

And the second time she gave us sock puppets.

And sock-o-drama.

(laughter)

Because she was, you know, a patient of

a psychiatric hospital.

That's amazing, it's just like what she thinks about.

Yes, but it's not just sock puppets,

she comes with the puppets, which have many wigs,

for the wigs that she has.

So cornrows, and the little sock puppet has cornrows.

Unbelievable, but that why she is who she is.

There's nothing sort of halfway.

There's nothing half-assed.

I know we're all waiting for the Friends reunion.

Movie or TV Show. Isn't that sad?

Or like the MASH reunion or whatever.

How sad.

Yeah.

But you know, that was just this rumor that started,

I remember our first interview,

like the day after we wrapped,

so is there going to be a reunion?

Yeah.

And it started right then and there.

And hasn't stopped.

Do you remember your audition for Friends?

Yeah, definitely. It was in the pilot.

It was a monologue. It's this monologue

that Phoebe gives about herself.

I remember when I first came to this city,

I was 14...

You know like when you mom commits

suicide, and then, you know, your step dad's in jail,

and you end up living in a car,

with a homeless albino guy, or

like whatever, that monologue was the audition piece.

Also, Who Do You Think You Are,

this series, talk about must see TV, I'm riveted.

Yeah, I mean I can't believe the documents

we find in the stories that are revealed.

I'm still in awe of that show.

And as a producer, I love acting,

and producing, you know, that's okay,

but for this show, it's worth it

because you learn so much and it's really fun.

I consider my greatest achievement

to be, I think my family, honestly.

My son and my husband. Still married,

and my son is a very nice person.

So, that's not actually just my achievement, is it?

Okay so if there's one thing I would

change about myself, it would be that I stop

taking credit for absolutely everything.