Here’s What Matt Leblanc and Lisa Kudrow Really Felt About Their 'Perfect Kiss' on ‘Friends’

Every single Friends fan certainly remembers the "perfect kiss" between the characters Joey Tribbiani and Phoebe Buffay in the episode The One Where They All Turn Thirty. It turns out that both stars who played these iconic characters, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow had wanted their characters to have a bigger romantic plot. LeBlanc opened up in an interview about how the characters' relationships in the storyline almost progressed further than what viewers got to see.

The 55-year-old actor revealed that he and Lisa Kudrow came up with the prospective plot, but the show's writers weren't as keen on it, as per a 2019 report by Cosmopolitan. The storyline the two actors pitched involved the characters Joey and Phoebe secretly hooking up for years.

"We’d go back and shoot all the historical scenes. Just before a moment that everyone recognizes, there’s Joey and Phoebe coming out of a broom closet together," LeBlanc shared with People at the time. 

Fans would have loved this, especially given how beloved the two were throughout and after the run of the program. On the famous "perfect kiss" scene, one fan wrote on Twitter, "Joey kissed Phoebe so she could have her perfect kiss after she found out she lost a year for her birthday like UGH I love JOEY." Another user tweeted, "when joey went after phoebe when she said she doesn't even have the perfect kiss yet and kisses her!" which the user followed up with multiple crying emojis.

A Friends fan tweeted about pairing the two as a couple: "my ultimate dilemma will always be whether I ship Joey and Phoebe more as friends or as a couple bc they're perfect as both!" Another fan tweeted, "Best Friends character? Mine are Joey and Phoebe, I ship them so much. They're so funny, adorable and beautiful, and a little dumb." Yet another one shared, "I prefer Phoebe & Joey over every other couple on Friends tbh. They were perfect for each other and would’ve had the cutest little family."

LeBlanc and Kudrow had a very nice friendship off-camera too. Kudrow had revealed in a 2019 interview on Marc Aaron's WTF podcast, as reported by Marie Claire that she was struggling with body image issues at one point. LeBlanc had been a great support to her at this time. "You see yourself on TV and it’s that, 'Oh, my God, I’m just a mountain of a girl.' I’m already bigger than Courteney and Jennifer — bigger, like my bones feel bigger. I just felt like this mountain of a woman next to them."

"Unfortunately for a woman, if you’re underweight, you look good. And that’s all I ever got. When I was too thin, I was sick all the time. A cold, sinus infection… I was always sick," she added.

Despite the difficulties in the background, Kudrow acknowledged that she could always rely on Matt LeBlanc for assistance because he served as a sort of big brother. "I told Matt LeBlanc. He's a big brother," Kudrow revealed after being body-shamed by a guest star on the show.