Aug 19, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Lisa Kudrow might be best known as Phoebe from Friends, but she’s making Internet waves as Fiona, a self-absorbed shrink who counsels her clients via iChat on the hit online comedy series Web Therapy. As the show gears up for its TV debut next spring on Showtime, we caught up with its Emmy-winning star to talk product placement, celebrity cameos, and the perks (or not) of being sponsored by Lexus.

Fast Company: You were on the biggest sitcom of the last 20 years. Why do a Web series?

Lisa Kudrow: It’s just really cool and fun, so why not? That’s how I always felt about independent films. If it doesn’t work out, no one’s gonna see it. If it does work out, then that’s really great. Because you don’t have the restraints that are normally imposed [when you're targeting the masses].

FC: You get more freedom?

Kudrow: In terms of developing entertainment, things don’t cost as much on the Web, so you can keep developing your program for longer periods of time [with minimal financial risk]. And that’s something that you can’t do so much on TV anymore, because for the networks and studios, the stakes are just way too high.

FC: How did you wind up working with Lexus?

Kudrow: They had wanted to start [online content hub] L Studio, and a production company came to us and said, “Do you wanna do something? You’ll have complete creative control.” Meanwhile, I had come up with the idea for Web Therapy. So [my team] just said, Alright, as long as they’re asking, we can do it here.

FC: How did they define “complete creative control”? Never asking you to plug their products?

Kudrow: We actually didn’t have a Lexus [on the show] until the third season. When we first started working with them, they actually said, “You don’t have to say Lexus. In fact, don’t.” L Studio seems like it’s more about affiliation than integration.

FC: Meaning the best branded content shouldn’t feel branded.

Kudrow: Right. With certain shows I watch, like Top Chef, one season they were driving around in like Toyotas or Lexuses. But that wasn’t a focus of the show. So I was just like, Oh, good for them. Oh, they’ve got the same taste I do. Then I feel a little better about the Lexus I drive around in.

FC: Did Lexus give you the car for free?

Kudrow: No, oh god no. [laughs] I already had one. But let’s also not forget, that hey, could ya? Throw a Lexus in there?

FC: Wouldn’t that be nice.

Kudrow: [laughs] No, I mean Lexus asked if we could throw a Lexus into Web Therapy. They just wanted to see the car at some point. So we do it in ways that work with the characters and the show. For example, Fiona gets really upset because her husband’s campaign manager is driving around in a Lexus convertible, and she’s being driven around in a van. “Why do you get a nice car and I get this?” That was little more heavy-handed, but in a way that was funny to us.

FC: What inside scoop can you give us on what’s coming up for Fiona on the Showtime show?

Kudrow: We’re going to meet her mother. The character’s name is Pussy Hodge, played by Lily Tomlin, who was unbelievably funny. Then we spend more time with Fiona’s husband Kip, so we see a little more about how that marriage works as she’s starting up a new endeavor. And just how she finagles, blackmails, extorts–whatever she can do to get this thing off the ground.

FC: So for the most part, Lexus lets you do your own thing.

Kudrow: Yeah, that’s why we signed on. And if it stays that way, then it’s great.

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Aug 01, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Videos Comments (3)

Aug 01, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Videos Comments (2)

Jun 11, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Web Therapy Comments (0)

Every year, the television networks hold “upfronts,” where they trot out a lot of stars, showcase their upcoming new shows, and attempt to sell advertising for those shows. Since web TV shows have increasingly become the talk of the internet, it was only a matter of time before they had their own upfront. Or as Digitas, the digital marketing company calls it, a Digital Content NewFront.

Teri Hatcher, Lisa Kudrow, Kevin Pollak, Seth Green, Martha Stewart, Arianna Huffington, Jason Bateman, Rick Fox and a host of internet gurus were at Digitas’ third annual Digital Content NewFront in New York this week, talking about internet content and new media, promoting their web content, and connecting with advertisers.

Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher was there to talk about her newly launched website targeted to women, Get Hatched, A Chick’s Guide to Life.

I had a chance to talk with Teri and asked her if she had any trepidation about breaking into the web:

When you believe in something and it comes from a place of passion and joy, that overrides fear. I think I probably felt scarier about joining the Desperate Housewives cast at the beginning, because you feel so many things are beyond your control and it isn’t just about quality at the end of the day.

I feel like I’ve gotten to a place where if I’m giving my best to something that’s all I can do. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.  And that’s not the reflection of who I am so there’s less fear based thinking.

When I asked if she had any tidbits about what will be happening on Wisteria Lane this fall she said, “I got nothin’ for ya! Other than that, we’re looking forward to welcoming Vanessa Williams. I have no idea what she’ll be doing other than being glamorous and probably causing mischief.”

Lisa Kudrow‘s internet series, Web Therapy, about a therapist who does quickie sessions by video chat, is in its third season. She told me she’s excited about the freedom the internet provides:

Creatively there are no limits. On TV, they don’t have the time for something different to see if an audience can find it and get used to it.

That unlimited creativity caught the attention of Showtime, which has picked up the series for the fall.

Actress Amy Brenneman was there, as were several other celebs, to pitch an idea for a new web series. Hers is called The Procrastinators. Brenneman even used a sampling of tweets from her followers about her idea as part of her pitch.

Comedian Kevin Pollak, who has an online chat show, feels the internet is a “creative nirvana.” Pollak moderated the panel discussion that included Hatcher, Kudrow, Ben Silverman of Electus and Ricky Van Veen of College Humor.

Pollak said that because actors have so much down time, they especially understand that if you’re “not creating, you’re waiting.” The internet, he said, was the perfect place to have creative control and maintain ownership of your product.

The woman in charge of the event was Stephanie Sarofian, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of The Third Act, the brand content unit of Digitas. She told me:

Marketing has become content-centric. It’s not like the old branded entertainment world or the old upfront world. It starts with a deal but it ends with a really amazing experience that we’ve seen through the entire process.

Despite the upbeat attitude toward the potential of web content at DCNF, however, I spoke with one woman who said most of the celeb web shows were nothing more than “celebrity YouTube.” This woman, who has worked in web marketing and production for years, agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity.

She called Kudrow’s Web Therapy a sponsored “audition reel.” She believes the real goal of the series was achieved: for Kudrow’s concept to be picked up by a broadcast or cable network.

This woman also thinks the revenue model for web shows is “not sustainable,” and though “some of these people will make money, the majority will not.”

If that turns out to be the case, it’ll simply be part of the ongoing birthing pains of an industry that doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up.

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May 07, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Paper Man,Web Therapy,Who Do You Think You Are? Comments (0)

Lisa guested NPR “Talk of the Nation” yesterday for a talk about her busy career. Listen to the interview below.

Apr 24, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,News & Rumors Comments (0)

Actress Lisa Kudrow has admitted plastic surgery makes her ‘nervous’ but might get something done when she’s 60.

Kudrow, 46, best known for playing the role of Phoebe in US sitcom Friends, admitted she has no plans to have any cosmetic surgery but said she doesn’t like to see herself ageing.

She said to New York magazine: ‘It’s sometimes just hard to watch yourself. I mean, look, time marches on. You can’t look 30 when you’re not. I don’t even know what to say about it. It makes me nervous, that stuff [surgery].

‘But still, you want to look good. So it’s sometimes just hard to watch yourself, like: ‘Oh God, what’s happening to me?’ There’s a line between looking like yourself and looking like a character from a Batman movie.’

Kudrow added that turning down surgery sometimes has its benefits.

She said: ‘In Cougar Town, I played a dermatologist, and so the only note I had on the script was that I have to say that I haven’t had any work done – it’s too noticeable not to mention.

‘Boy, I really hope I can put it off till I’m 60 or 70. I’ll keep you posted.’

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Apr 22, 2010 Filed Under: Interviews,Paper Man,Who Do You Think You Are? Comments (0)

Lisa Kudrow puts up with a lot in Paper Man. She plays a heart surgeon married to a failing writer played by Jeff Daniels who pushes his friendship with a teenage girl to the limit.

Kudrow is also busy as executive producer of NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are?, a show in which celebs explore their ancestry. Kudrow told Parade.com‘s Jeanne Wolf that she understands what it takes to keep a relationship together.

Women don’t give up easily.
“When you love someone and when you’re committed, you put up with a lot of things. I think women have a tremendous capacity for patience when they commit to something. The trick with women is when you’ve run all that patience out; they’re done and it’s hard to get them back.”

But guys are winning the age game.
“I know we all want everything to be equal, but it’s just not. Men age well and they are capable of being attractive to women that are a lot younger and it just doesn’t work the other way most of the time. There are exceptions obviously, but you know, in general it’s just not the way it happens.”

Almost following in her dad’s footsteps.
“It was funny to play a surgeon. Originally, I was gonna go to medical school and become a doctor like my father and he said, ‘That’s great.’ Then I said, ‘No, not medical school. I’m just gonna do research.’ And he said, ‘That’s fantastic.’ And then I said, ‘Instead of all that, I’m just gonna go for acting.’ He said, ‘Good for you.’ So he’s like the kind of dad any girl would want — whatever makes you happy.”

How science has made her a better performer.
“The scientific method done correctly doesn’t allow any judgment, no opinions. You can’t have it crowded by too much bias. I approach acting the same way. What you learn about your characters is just information, and you’re not allowed to judge them.”

Remembering the advice she’d like to forget.
“I was told by a teacher, ‘You’re funny, and people either get you or they don’t. So the question is, will you work or not? Who knows? I think there are maybe very few people who get what you’re doing, and those people might employ you. And the rest of the world, I think they’re just going to think you’re f—d up.’ I sometimes wonder how she felt when she saw me on Friends.”

The world isn’t always funny.
“I don’t think I’m always looking for the humor in everything. I used to. There was a point when I was at The Groundlings and I was looking for what’s funny. Usually, I found it was the mean stuff. You had to look for the mean take on things, and the angry take. I didn’t want to live my life like that.”

Rediscovering her past on Who Do You Think You Are?
“The producers sort of made me the guinea pig because they decided I had a good story to tell. There were some things that my father didn’t know and that I didn’t know about. For me, it became a holocaust story uncovering things that relatives suffered that were brutal and also surprising. That’s kind of the key to the show: What we can learn from uncovering our past. I think almost everyone who’s seen it has tried to find out more about their own family tree. They just log onto Ancestry.com and immediately start looking things up.”

Keeping history alive.
“It’s the intimate details of these stories that personalize history and that adds to the impact. I used to feel bad about holding on to things from my past like my Day Runners from the ’80s, and faxes and stuff. I’m not going to feel bad about that anymore because those are all, at some point, potentially important family documents about what I was thinking or feeling at the time. It turns out that everything is a clue when you’re trying to piece together a life from a few hundred years ago.” 

Source.