"I don't know the real me," muses Lisa Kudrow. "Wow, that's a statement! I'm kind of reserved I think."
Although she's clearly reluctant to talk too deeply about herself, it's true to say that whoever she really is, Lisa Kudrow is certainly funny, blessed with ‒ according to the director of her latest film Richard LaGravenese anyway ‒ perfect comic timing.
Post Friends, she's popped up in small but memorable film roles, like her latest role as Denise, the quirky pal of Hilary Swank's Holly in the big screen adaptation of Irish author Cecelia Ahern's chick novel, P.S. I Love You.
"It was Hilary Swank and then Ireland which attracted me to the role," says Lisa Kudrow, who was keen to film on location. "I'd been to Ireland earlier in the year and really fell in love with it, so all those things put together, there was no way to say no."
The film follows Holly, who is in mourning for her happy-go-lucky husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) who died of a brain tumour. Her grief is interrupted by the arrival of letters from Gerry, each with a different request, which he intended her to receive following his death.
"When I read the script, I thought it was cruel, not romantic, that he was sending her letters so that she will remember him," says Ms Kudrow. "In that situation it's not very healthy because you can't really move on with your life.
"But then by the end you can see that wasn't really his intention. His intention was that she remembers herself, through all the things he wanted her to do, and tells her to do in the letters. Go out with a friend, do karaoke, get outside of yourself, don't take yourself so seriously. Remember who you were when I met you."
In the meantime, Holly is faced with the prospect of finding love again with barman Daniel (Harry Connick Jr), while Denise desperately and sometimes tactlessly tries to find a man of her own.
"It's more acceptable for women today to use pick up lines and say 'hello' in a nice way," says Ms Kudrow. "But the way Denise does it in the movie wouldn't do well for anybody, that's why it's funny. It's inappropriate."
Playing a singleton on the dating scene made Ms Kudrow relieved that she is happily settled. She's been married to advertising executive Michael Stern for 12 years and they live in Los Angeles with their nine-year-old son Julian.
"I didn't just need to read the script to feel it would be horrible to be in the dating pool, because I'm not very flirty anyway," she says. "Dating in LA is difficult. No one is over 20 or larger than a size zero. But I'm married so I'm not looking for anybody."
This must come as a bit of a relief, considering some of her past dating disasters. "One date was a doctor in geriatric medicine," she recalls. "He took me to a hamburger joint and excused himself from the table because he had a 90-year-old patient to deal with.
"Then he came back and said, 'You have to come with me to the hospital as I have to admit this guy. He took me to the Emergency Room on a Saturday night and it looked like a war zone. I'd no business being there. It was so I could see him work his magic with a 90-year-old man who was comfortably dying. When we got back into the car he said, 'So, do you ever see yourself getting married and having kids?' I said 'Yes, I do.' And he then said, 'We have so much in common because so do I!'"
Luckily, Ms Kudrow never saw him again and ended up marrying Mr Stern soon after the first season of Friends, giving birth to Julian in 1998. And these days, she is content to see acting as a part-time job, having left the demanding hours of the hit sitcom, and later her critically-acclaimed HBO TV series The Comeback, behind.
"It's not hard to juggle at all," says Ms Kudrow. "My son is older so I don't get those heart-wrenching calls saying, 'Where are you?'. But if I were to go back and do something like The Comeback, which was a solid year working every day ‒ that would be hard.
"Motherhood is all surprises," she adds. "Nobody can really anticipate what parenthood is. It's been wonderful surprises and then tough surprises and a huge transition, but hopefully I've adjusted."
Ms Kudrow also had to adjust to life after Friends, probably the most popular TV comedy in the world in the 1990s ‒ and even today, thanks to endless re-runs.
"I look back on Friends fondly," she says. "We all still keep in touch although we don't see each other a lot. I miss certain things about the show like not being with those people every single day. Matthew Perry is one of the funniest people I've ever met and I miss just cracking up.
"It was a really happy good experience. And it's done, so we have to just move on. There are no regrets."
Such was its popularity that people still speculate about a Friends reunion, or a film version of the show, following in the footsteps of the recent Sex And The City movie.
"There's always been this rumour which isn't based on any kind of reality," says Ms Kudrow. "I know they're doing a Sex And The City movie, but that was filmed single camera ‒ almost like a film anyway. Friends was multi-camera in front of an audience, so it's a very different tone and I don't know how that translates to film.
"I think they should dump the whole idea. The writers would have to be on board and then get the six of us on board. And who's going to come up with all that money to talk everyone into doing it?
"I don't know if it's worth it. Ross and Rachel got together, Phoebe's married, Monica and Chandler moved to Connecticut. The series ended. It's not these six people living in New York being there for each other as family. They now have their own families; the story's over.
"Maybe in 30 years, other actors will do Friends and it will be a spoof and they'll be making fun of it. But I won't be in it. Or perhaps I'll be a grandma..."
Although she's clearly reluctant to talk too deeply about herself, it's true to say that whoever she really is, Lisa Kudrow is certainly funny, blessed with ‒ according to the director of her latest film Richard LaGravenese anyway ‒ perfect comic timing.
Post Friends, she's popped up in small but memorable film roles, like her latest role as Denise, the quirky pal of Hilary Swank's Holly in the big screen adaptation of Irish author Cecelia Ahern's chick novel, P.S. I Love You.
"It was Hilary Swank and then Ireland which attracted me to the role," says Lisa Kudrow, who was keen to film on location. "I'd been to Ireland earlier in the year and really fell in love with it, so all those things put together, there was no way to say no."
The film follows Holly, who is in mourning for her happy-go-lucky husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) who died of a brain tumour. Her grief is interrupted by the arrival of letters from Gerry, each with a different request, which he intended her to receive following his death.
"When I read the script, I thought it was cruel, not romantic, that he was sending her letters so that she will remember him," says Ms Kudrow. "In that situation it's not very healthy because you can't really move on with your life.
"But then by the end you can see that wasn't really his intention. His intention was that she remembers herself, through all the things he wanted her to do, and tells her to do in the letters. Go out with a friend, do karaoke, get outside of yourself, don't take yourself so seriously. Remember who you were when I met you."
In the meantime, Holly is faced with the prospect of finding love again with barman Daniel (Harry Connick Jr), while Denise desperately and sometimes tactlessly tries to find a man of her own.
"It's more acceptable for women today to use pick up lines and say 'hello' in a nice way," says Ms Kudrow. "But the way Denise does it in the movie wouldn't do well for anybody, that's why it's funny. It's inappropriate."
Playing a singleton on the dating scene made Ms Kudrow relieved that she is happily settled. She's been married to advertising executive Michael Stern for 12 years and they live in Los Angeles with their nine-year-old son Julian.
"I didn't just need to read the script to feel it would be horrible to be in the dating pool, because I'm not very flirty anyway," she says. "Dating in LA is difficult. No one is over 20 or larger than a size zero. But I'm married so I'm not looking for anybody."
This must come as a bit of a relief, considering some of her past dating disasters. "One date was a doctor in geriatric medicine," she recalls. "He took me to a hamburger joint and excused himself from the table because he had a 90-year-old patient to deal with.
"Then he came back and said, 'You have to come with me to the hospital as I have to admit this guy. He took me to the Emergency Room on a Saturday night and it looked like a war zone. I'd no business being there. It was so I could see him work his magic with a 90-year-old man who was comfortably dying. When we got back into the car he said, 'So, do you ever see yourself getting married and having kids?' I said 'Yes, I do.' And he then said, 'We have so much in common because so do I!'"
Luckily, Ms Kudrow never saw him again and ended up marrying Mr Stern soon after the first season of Friends, giving birth to Julian in 1998. And these days, she is content to see acting as a part-time job, having left the demanding hours of the hit sitcom, and later her critically-acclaimed HBO TV series The Comeback, behind.
"It's not hard to juggle at all," says Ms Kudrow. "My son is older so I don't get those heart-wrenching calls saying, 'Where are you?'. But if I were to go back and do something like The Comeback, which was a solid year working every day ‒ that would be hard.
"Motherhood is all surprises," she adds. "Nobody can really anticipate what parenthood is. It's been wonderful surprises and then tough surprises and a huge transition, but hopefully I've adjusted."
Ms Kudrow also had to adjust to life after Friends, probably the most popular TV comedy in the world in the 1990s ‒ and even today, thanks to endless re-runs.
"I look back on Friends fondly," she says. "We all still keep in touch although we don't see each other a lot. I miss certain things about the show like not being with those people every single day. Matthew Perry is one of the funniest people I've ever met and I miss just cracking up.
"It was a really happy good experience. And it's done, so we have to just move on. There are no regrets."
Such was its popularity that people still speculate about a Friends reunion, or a film version of the show, following in the footsteps of the recent Sex And The City movie.
"There's always been this rumour which isn't based on any kind of reality," says Ms Kudrow. "I know they're doing a Sex And The City movie, but that was filmed single camera ‒ almost like a film anyway. Friends was multi-camera in front of an audience, so it's a very different tone and I don't know how that translates to film.
"I think they should dump the whole idea. The writers would have to be on board and then get the six of us on board. And who's going to come up with all that money to talk everyone into doing it?
"I don't know if it's worth it. Ross and Rachel got together, Phoebe's married, Monica and Chandler moved to Connecticut. The series ended. It's not these six people living in New York being there for each other as family. They now have their own families; the story's over.
"Maybe in 30 years, other actors will do Friends and it will be a spoof and they'll be making fun of it. But I won't be in it. Or perhaps I'll be a grandma..."