Lisa Kudrow, Parker Posey on ‘The White Lotus’, ‘Friends’ and more

Parker Posey and Lisa Kudrow met for the first time and made “Clockwatchers”, an Indie comedy from 1997 in which they play Temps in a boring office. At the time, Posey founded a reputation as a fast -growing legend of independent film that would cross quickly enough in projects such as “You Got Mail” and “Scream 3”, while Kudrow was already a superstar thanks to her role as a quirky Phoebe Buffay about “friends”.

Both have experienced the fame of cult TV in the following years as Jack’s arch enemy about ‘Will & Grace’, Kudrow as a washed-up actress-ring-reality star on ‘The Comeback’ and both put their mark on projects last season. Posey brought himself his way through the role of rich matriarch Victoria Ratliff on the HBO franchise ‘The White Lotus’, while Kudrow delivered a sensitive, painful performance as Lydia Morgan, a mourning mother who believes that her deceased son is communicating with her feature on Netflix’s real estate’ ”

Parker Posey: We were both in the 90s Nora Ephron ladies.

Lisa Kudrow: I know.

Posey: What did you do with Nora?

Kudrow: I “hung up”, with which she wrote [her sister] Delia. Diane Keaton directed it. We had good food every day because Nora was nearby. And then I made another film that Nora directed, and John Travolta was in it – “Was it in?” How is that? It was a John Travolta film and I was in it.

Posey: And he was an angel or something, right?

Kudrow: No, that was “Michael” and that was a great film. This was disappointing. I remember Nora called me once – I worked on “friends” – and she went: “When are you done with this show? Why do you keep doing it?” I had something like: “Well, some good reasons.”

Posey: I remember that she came to me once and said, “Just be funny”, and that was the note.

Kudrow: It’s a good note!

Posey: I am such a big fan of you, and one of my most favorite things ever is ‘the comeback’. How did it start in your brain?

Kudrow: There were no “real housewives” yet. But there was “The Amazing Race” and “Survivor”, which I thought, “Well, this is the end of civilization.” Because on “Amazing Race” – I watched a few – the woman eats very spicy things and vomit on camera while her husband screams against her. She cries and broke, and I went, “Oh, this is it.”

Posey: “How can I surpass that?”

Kudrow: “This is the end.” And then I thought: ‘What if you don’t have to feel bad for one normal Person – What if it is an actress? “It was close when ‘friends’ was almost ready.

Posey: It is such an interesting advantage to walk, because as a viewer I felt for her and I also for her root.

Kudrow: For me it was all Christopher guest films that you did.

Posey: Chris Guest would say: “This is not too far from the truth” and just walk away. And then you play the scene. It is the things that you don’t really think about – that is what was so liberating about those films. I felt so spoiled: you go inside and lock up in the other person and just trust them.

Kudrow: I know you were on some multi-camera sitcoms. How was that for you? Because there is something more left.

Posey: It is like tap dancing and really having to take that step. It is not exactly formal, but it affects some types of notes. I would say things about ‘Will & Grace’, and people would laugh, and I didn’t understand. I didn’t think it was funny.

Kudrow: Was it a joke they had written?

Posey: Maybe. Yes, I think so.

Kudrow: That sometimes happens.

Posey: It was very athletic.

Kudrow: They always throw new things towards you. We all got new things as we did.

Posey: It was really fun, right? Did it feel like a sport for you?

Kudrow: It was fun. It was fun all the time because the cast had fun. Phoebe was as far from who I was like a human, it was work – I had to justify everything she said in my head, so it felt like she meant it and it was really for her. It was a lot of work. I remember season 2 or 3, I went, “Oh my God, I don’t do the work.” And Leblanc went: “What’s the matter with you? You are her. You don’t have to do that.”

Posey: You are so much: “But I want to work.”

Kudrow: The worst was to want to be a good student. That is what hurt me the most.

Posey: I also like to do my homework. When I read “The White Lotus” and it was so well written … I don’t know how he did it, but Mike White wrote those eight episodes, and actually they just fly.

We have both been doing this for 30 years, right?

Kudrow: Yes.

Posey: It was such a gift to have this middle-aged woman in my career at the moment to be this southern woman. I read Tennessee Williams in Junior High, so I just ate it.

Kudrow: Did you have a reference point for Victoria?

Posey: My father loved William Faulkner. He was a very big reader. He loved Flannery O’Connor and all those Gothic stories. And my mother’s mother dressed like a movie star; She went to Neiman Marcus and looked at the things she liked, and she would go home and make them herself.

Kudrow: I think my favorite thing asked Victoria in the entire season: “What if we had nothing?” And the answer was the most honest thing I have ever seen and made me respect. Don’t respect her –

Posey: I know what you mean. When I read the rule, it got the most out of the eight episodes, and I knew exactly how to say it. There is such a cadence. Many people love to improvise and add things. But if it is really tight, I think it’s great how it sounds.

Would you enter the world ‘White Lotus’?

Kudrow: Working with Mike White? Yes. I love Mike White. I hung around with him at a party.

Posey: He comes around.

Kudrow: He is social. And “Brad’s status” was my favorite film that year. I sent him an e -mail to let him know, because I had to – it was so good, I had to. I don’t do that much.

Posey: Oh, Lisa, you should be in season 4. If there is a Tiktok campaign, it will happen.

Kudrow: Because it works that way. No, it doesn’t.

Posey: It doesn’t. Because who knows what Mike White writes or where these stories are going?

Kudrow: And I may not be his cup of tea, which may also happen. But I get nervous about the inhabitant of things that are too dark; I try to avoid that. But you didn’t really need that, except the scenes where your head has been canceled. But it’s like pretending.

Posey: I really felt for mothers when I played this role.

Kudrow: Right. It is a completely different dimension.

Posey: I realized that mothers are formed by their families and formed by the man. So I had to go to the patriarchal system of women who are not authentic. She has a distorted point of view of her life and it is made possible.

Kudrow: A family has its own culture. We all grew up in one.

Posey: And that is what is great about writing good writing is that it does not judge, and it increases the way you look –

Kudrow: It didn’t feel like it judged so much this time – except that it was natural because they were on a white lotus.

Posey: Mike is also an actor. He is really an interesting guy. He was on ‘survivor’. And “The Amazing Race” twice.

Kudrow: Oh, twice on “great race”? Wow. Loves to punish himself.

Posey: And then he decides to do a season in Thailand. It felt like an experiment, to work so far away in an exotic place for so long. It was such a gift when you are out of your element, you know?

Kudrow: We have worked on ‘Clockwatchers’.

Posey: That is where we first met. Jill and Karen Sprecher …

Kudrow: They wrote it and Jill directed it. So Jill would come by and whisper a note to you; They have their secrets. And the whole thing was about not trusting each other and trust and secrets.

Posey: Well, she was very shy. Do you remember the first working day, she said “Cut!” Instead of “promotion!”

Kudrow: She was fantastic. But I thought everyone was smart and knew what they were doing more than me. So if she whispered, I would think, “Oh my God, she creates the same atmosphere.” Because you like: “What does she say?”

“Clockwatchers” had a certain culture on the set. Does Mike also do that consciously or unconsciously?

Posey: Oh, I think every director does that. That is the whole mysticism: you have to be a doll that takes shape through the projections that happen around you.

Kudrow: I always feel that there are many different levels that you are not even aware of the choices you make as an actor. And then you see it. It feels like: “Oh, I didn’t even know I did.”

Posey: It can be really slippery. And then some people, you try to understand, and you are just in it. With Victoria I had something like: “Tim takes those pills?” Does she know he is taking pills? I am DenyAnd that cost me for a while. I even spoke with Mike: “Does she know?“

Kudrow: How don’t she know?

Posey: She knows. Of course she knows. She has been married to him for 30 years.

Kudrow: Did he say that?

Posey: No. But they give that room to be in that state. I really like to deny – what people pick up in their instincts, what they choose to reveal to their loved ones.

That is what you do in ‘not a good deed’.

Kudrow: I don’t think she wanted to poke about how her marriage goes. She knew who her husband was; He was not a big talker about emotions. But then they suffered a real tragedy where talking would have been good. And all the time I was so enthusiastic that she could not do funny advice.

Posey: No.

Kudrow: She couldn’t talk about it with a therapist. She was alone. And it is so destructive.

Posey: A dark night of the soul.

Kudrow: My first question when I met Liz Feldman, who created the show and wrote it was: “If the lights flicker, is that real? Or do you say it is not real?” And she said, “I think that happens.” I went, “Ok, then I’m in it”, because I think that is happening.

Posey: It does happen. It happens in my house.

Kudrow: I have seen it happen. My big, important question was: “Are you going to call nonsense …”

Posey: On Spirit?

Kudrow: And Lydia needs it. And that was my first question because I honestly would think twice.

Posey: We don’t need a glib.

Kudrow: We need magic.

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Production: Bauie+Rad; Production design: Francisco Vargas