INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Matt Leblanc Still Besties With His ‘Friends’ Costar, And Why He Wanted To Try Playing An On Screen Dad

By Stacey Cole
Published on: 02:18 PST, Dec 30, 2016

Matt LeBlanc will never forget his stint in Friends, the NBC sitcom that catapulted him to stardom. Much more than just his acting skills, it was Matt LeBlanc’s loveable character Joey in Friends that made him a household name.

From 1994 to 2004, the actor was seen on television screens playing the role of the lovable, laid-back, but fairly dim-witted Joey Tribbiani; a character who was also depicted as being rather promiscuous. Besides Joey Tribbiani, Friends also featured other popular characters like Phoebe Buffay, Chandler Bing, Rachel Green, and Ross and Monica Geller: a fabulous cast that entertained audiences with their quirky and funny personalities.

According to Entertainment Weekly, LeBlanc’s decade of work in Friends helped shape his acting career, and today the actor credits the hugely popular sitcom with providing the perfect launch-pad for his career.

“It’s a decade of my life documented. It was a good time, that show — career-wise, probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me by far.”

Even today, when being questioned in interviews, LeBlanc is constantly asked about his famous Friends role. The actor was recently teased by Lady Gaga over his womanizing Friends character when the two celebrities appeared on James Corden’s The Late Late Show. Lady Gaga wanted to know whether LeBlanc’s Joey would have made a better partner for Monica Geller, or whether the show’s producers should have paired him off with Rachel Green. According to Today, LeBlanc answered that he and actress Lisa Kudrow personally felt that Matt’s Joey and Lisa’s Phoebe would have made a perfect couple in the popular television series.

“Towards the end we actually pitched the idea that Joey and Phoebe had been having casual sex the entire time.”

In fact, LeBlanc used the famous “She’s very bendy” quote from Friends to suggest that his womanizing Friends character would have definitely preferred to court the beautiful but ditzy Phoebe. According to Fox News, the actor revealed that his idea of pairing his character with Phoebe in the show never materialized because he was unable to convince the show’s creators.

“We’d go back and shoot all the historical scenes and just before a moment that everyone recognizes, there’s Joey and Phoebe coming out of a broom closet together. But they were like, ‘Nah.'”

Matt LeBlanc gained immense popularity by featuring in just this one television program because the show had a huge appeal to audiences of all ages. After the final season of Friends ended, LeBlanc took almost six years off, searching for the right opportunity to work in television; however, the opportunity never arose, and the actor ended up spending time with his 12-year-old daughter.

There was no financial crisis for LeBlanc because he made his fortune with his stint in Friends. However, his break from show business ended when Friends co-creator David Crane offered him a role in Episodes, a British-American television comedy sitcom.

Matt LeBlanc’s mass appeal with his enormous fan base played a key role in making Episodes popular, with LeBlanc featuring in the show as an on-screen version of himself. Currently, LeBlanc is starring in a sitcom titled Man With A Plan, where he plays the role of a father who is forced to take care of his three children when his career-oriented wife leaves for work.

It appears that LeBlanc’s personal experience as a father will help him play his on-screen role to perfection. According to The Straits Times, Matt LeBlanc spoke about the patience a father requires when raising children.

“The hardest thing about being a dad sometimes is patience. You have to really dig deep to find it – you find yourself being short with them and kids are brutally honest, so if you hurt their feelings, they don’t hide that.”

The Washington Times reported that Matt LeBlanc identifies with his role as a parent so much that he “wanted to explore what that would be like as a character.”

And as for whether LeBlanc’s former costar Matthew Perry would ever guest star on Man With a Plan: nothing is set in stone, but it’s a definite possibility. The two former costars are still incredibly good friends, much to the delight of Friends fans worldwide.

“I love that guy… We still have this shorthand with one another. It’s amazing, really.”

[Featured Image by Eric Charbonneau/AP Images]

Share this article: Matt Leblanc Still Besties With His ‘Friends’ Costar, And Why He Wanted To Try Playing An On Screen Dad
friends lady gaga Matt LeBlanc Matthew Perry
More from Inquisitr