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New direction: Lisa Kudrow as Mamie, and Bobby Cannavale as Javier, in Happy Beyond blonde Endings
OU know her best as She found fame as New York’s dumbest blonde, but Lisa blonde, ditzy Phoebe from Friends, but have you met Kudrow has always had a darker side. She told SALLY Lucia DeLury in The Op- BROWNE how she is leaving Phoebe and Friends behind her positeY of Sex, or Sharon Holmes in Wonderland, or Mamie Toll in parties with. . . emotionally ress Ursula, which in turn spawned Happy Endings? generous. He’s available and he’s her twin Phoebe. Kudrow had no It’s not that Lisa Kudrow has nice and warm.’’ idea how successful Friends had been avoiding the ditzy roles. It’s Kudrow says she doesn’t have too become until the cast was on the set just that they haven’t come her way. much in common with the compli- of Oprah. ‘‘I haven’t been offered any,’’ the cated Mamie. Far from being a ‘‘She showed us some clips of col- 42-year-old says. ‘‘So it feels like rebellious teenager, the young lege students getting together to Friends and Romy and Michele’s Kudrow was ‘‘responsible, fearful, watch it and our mouths fell open,’’ /HH .HUQDJKDQ High School Reunion and that’s it.’’ cautious’’. Kudrow says. ‘‘She said, ‘You didn’t Don Roos, who wrote and di- In fact, it’s been reported that she know?’ How did you not know about rected The Opposite of Sex, created remained a virgin until her mar- this?’ We didn’t know.’’ the part of Mamie, the smart, riage to Michel Stern when she was Kudrow doesn’t see much of the slightly uptight brunette in his new 31. But Kudrow is happy to set the cast now because ‘‘everyone’s scat- film Happy Endings, just for her. record straight. tered and busy’’. Kudrow heads a terrific ensemble ‘‘It’s not true,’’ she says. ‘‘What ‘‘The six of us had a lot of fun. It cast that includes Tom Arnold, happened was I said that, as a wasn’t a hard workday either. We Maggie Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern and young girl, my plan was that I would were able to make each other laugh British comedian Steve Coogan. be a virgin when I got married. But and then do our work.’’ 3DX The story traces the entangled, that’s fine if people think that. I Does Phoebe feel like a friend? O .HOO\ dysfunctional lives of Mamie and don’t mind young girls thinking, ‘‘I guess so, ’cos you inhabit her stepbrother Charley (Coogan). ‘Oh, it’s possible’.’’ someone or let someone inhabit you Charley turns out to be gay – but She’s not much like Phoebe, for a while. Ten years is actually that’s after the pair sleep together either – the only hint of the bubbly more than a while. So it’s more inti- as teenagers, resulting mate than a friend.’’ in Mamie’s pregnancy. Don Roos told ‘‘There were certain As a child I always Kudrow that he things that really struck thought Phoebe con- out when I first read the tained ‘‘reservoirs of script that I connected wanted to be an actress. pain’’, and Kudrow with,’’ Kudrow says. agrees. $GDP+DUYH\ ‘‘Her uncertainty – she I thought, ‘Oh, I can ‘‘That’s what was gave a child up for adop- funny about her,’’ she tion, told everyone that says. ‘‘Whatever hap- she had an abortion. do better than that’ pened to her she would Making up her own story skew the story, to turn 6DWXUGD\ $SULO about her life. I understand that. I blonde you’ll hear is when Kudrow it into something else, into ‘See, &DERROWXUH6KRZJURXQGV say it’s a fine line between coping says ‘‘OK’’ or ‘‘You know’’. it’s OK’. and denial.’’ A ‘‘Valley Girl’’ and a natural bru- ‘‘My audition piece was about 2YHUHLJKWKRXUVRIKHDGOLQHDFWV how her mother killed herself and Kudrow reckons that most people nette, Kudrow grew up in LA and 0HOLQGD6FKQHLGHU are dysfunctional in some way, famously studied the un-ditzy sub- her stepfather was in jail and she 3DXO.HOO\/HH.HUQDJKDQ was homeless and living in a car DQGWKH6WRUPZDWHU%R\V ‘‘ranging from most areas of their ject of psychobiology at college. $GDP+DUYH\0HOLQGD6FKQHLGHU7UR\&DVVDU'DOH\ lives to just a couple of areas’’. None of her family or friends were in and it was all OK. ‘‘Over 10 years she did deal with 7DQLD.HUQDJKDQ$OH\FH6LPPRQGV0&-LP+D\QHV ‘‘That’s what I love about Don the acting business, apart from her some of those things – met her Roos’ writing. Everybody’s got brother’s best friend, Jon Lovitz. \HDUV father, met her real mother. She $GXOW &KLOG something.’’ But that’s all it took. was less ditzy as time went on.’’ 7LFNHWHN ZZZWLFNHWHNFRP Tom Arnold’s part was also writ- ‘‘As a child I always wanted to be Kudrow is also busy writing and 7LFNHWVDYDLODEOHDW&DERROWXUH6KLUH$GPLQLVWUDWLRQ&HQWUHRU ten especially for him. The usually an actress, and then I put that away starring in the US TV series The 56/&DERROWXUH+DVNLQJ6WUHHW&DERROWXUH ERRNLQJIHHDSSOLHV loud-mouthed funny-guy plays a for high school and college. After Comeback, in which she plays act- :LGHUDQJHRIIRRGDQGEHYHUDJHVLQFOXGLQJDOFRKRODYDLODEOH kind, fortysomething single dad, college I was home in LA driving ress Valerie Cherish, a character QR%<2DOFRKRODQGQRJODVVSHUPLWWHG%<2FKDLURUEODQNHWV
who has more money than sensible around and I’d hear promos on the she invented many years ago. She’ll )5((6+877/(%86)52075$,172*$7(6 7UR\&DVVDU'DOH\ SUNDAY-MAIL Sun, Mar 12, 06 IE Ed:IE Unit: 5 Couple: women in his life. radio for sitcoms and I’d think, ‘Oh, be changing her hair colour again. ‘‘I’ve known Tom Arnold socially I can do better than that’.’’ ‘‘I’m headed back to blonde,’’ she
for a few years and that’s the guy With Lovitz’s encouragement, she laughs. ‘‘My husband likes me NOTES: that I know,’’ says Kudrow. ‘‘Not the joined the improvisation troupe the blonde. Blonde is lighter in every guy that most people see, but that’s Groundlings, which led to a part on way. It goes all the way through.’’ )RUPRUHLQIRUPDWLRQRQWKH)HVWLYDOFRQWDFWRUZZZXUEDQFRXQWU\FRPDX more like the guy I’ve been to dinner TV’s Mad About You as dumb wait- Happy Endings is out on March 23. + IE thesundaymail.com.au THE SUNDAY MAIL, IE March 12, 2006 Page 7