Tim Bagley Recalls Favorite Memory of Lisa Kudrow During Early Hollywood Days — Hint: It Involves Wigs and Mice (Exclusive)
Tim Bagley Recalls Favorite Memory of Lisa Kudrow During Early Hollywood Days — Hint: It Involves Wigs and Mice (Exclusive)
Lexi Lane, Alex CramerSun, March 29, 2026 at 3:00 PM UTC
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Tim Bagley; Lisa Kudrow at the ‘The Comeback’ season 3 premiere on March 19, 2026Credit: Brianna Bryson/WireImage; Julian Hamilton/FilmMagic -
Tim Bagley reflected on his decades-long friendship with Lisa Kudrow, which began at The Groundlings improvisation and sketch comedy school, in an exclusive interview with PEOPLE
Bagley praised Kudrow's intelligence and dedication to her characters, including her iconic role as Phoebe on Friends
The Comeback season 3, starring Kudrow and Bagley, explores Hollywood's challenges amid social media and industry strikes
Tim Bagley looks back fondly on the time he’s spent with Lisa Kudrow.
Bagley, 68, opened up about his longtime friendship with Kudrow, 62, while speaking to PEOPLE exclusively at The Comeback season 3 premiere at The Wallis Center in Beverly Hills, Calif. on March 19.
Not only do the two star alongside one another in The Comeback, as Bagley plays Frank and Kudrow leads as Valerie Cherish, but they've known each other for decades.
Bagley recalled that he and Kudrow both attended The Groundlings improvisation and sketch comedy school in Los Angeles, so they "really know each other's humor."
Tim Bagley and Lisa Kudrow in 2017Credit: Tommaso Boddi/Getty
While he described her as "very focused and very committed," he said that he does enjoy trying to make her break, as it is a "big joy" for him.
"I think that part of what makes her so funny, a great example of it is when she did Phoebe, she wasn't just a dumb character," he said about Kudrow's dedication, including to her Friends character Phoebe Buffay. "She commits to a point of view. She's a very smart person."
"She went to Vassar [College], and she's very smart. So she's coming from a very cerebral place when she is working on a character. And so for me, I always love watching that," Bagley added.
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Bagley also remembered there was one moment during their early comedy days that he still thinks about.
The two were at The Groundlings when he heard a scream. "I look over and she was putting up on a wig. She had gotten a wig out of her closet there, and there were mice in it," he explained. "And so, it's like learning in the trenches how to be funny and all that. It was ripped back then. But she was always a trouper. She was always funny."
"And I think if you really look at how she approached her character and Phoebe and how she approached this character and just about everything she's done, she's really smart," he continued.
Lisa Kudrow and her son, actor Julian Stern, on March 19, 2026Credit: Brianna Bryson/WireImage
Before The Comeback, Bagley and Kudrow appeared in Showtime's Web Therapy series, with the latter playing therapist Fiona Wallice. The comedy series ran from 2011 to 2015 and had four seasons.
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Now, the third and final season of The Comeback finds Kudrow's character trying to navigate a career in Hollywood amid the rise of social media and the SAG-AFTRA strikes. It premiered on Sunday, March 22.
The Comeback is airing now on HBO.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
