Robinon tells EW how Kudrow was “cool enough” to platform his ideas when he was still a struggling actor.

Craig Robinson shares how Lisa Kudrow spoke up for him on the set of* Friends*

Robinon tells EW how Kudrow was "cool enough" to platform his ideas when he was still a struggling actor.

By Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman

Ryan Coleman is a news writer for with previous work in MUBI Notebook, Slant, and the LA Review of Books.

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May 25, 2026 7:00 a.m. ET

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Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson on 'Friends'. Credit:

- Craig Robinson says Lisa Kudrow stood up for him while shooting a scene in the tenth season of *Friends*.

- "Lisa was cool enough to speak up for me, because I had thrown out a line that she heard, but nobody else heard it," Robinson recalled. "She was like, 'We have a pitch!'"

- Robinson appeared on season 10 episode 14 of *Friends *with Kudrow, as an office clerk who helps Kudrow's Phoebe change her name to Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock.

Lisa Kudrow really will be there for you.

Craig Robinson learned that lesson in a memorable way while shooting a scene for a tenth season episode of *Friends*. Back in 2004, Robinson only had a few credits to his name, from single-episode spots on series like *LAX** *and *The Bernie Mac Show*, to a role on the short-lived FX comedy *Lucky*. Then came an opportunity to play opposite Kudrow, who had become one of TV's biggest stars after 10 years on the beloved sitcom.

"I ended up working with Lisa later. We played a married couple in *Table 19*, actually. So we got real cool," Robinson tells **. "But back then, it was pretty much one scene, there really wasn't much else. We rehearsed it twice and then they did a pitch, and Lisa was cool enough to speak up for me."

Lisa Kudrow and Craig Robinson on 'Friends'.

Robinson explained that while shooting his scene with Kudrow on the episode "The One with Princess Consuela," the cast and creative crew began throwing out ideas to fine-tune the actors' back and forth. "I had thrown out a line that she heard, but nobody else heard it. She was like, 'We have a pitch!'"

So Robinson got to say his line, "and she got to react to it. But that was because of her, because I was just in there like, 'I'm a freaking friend! What are you talking about?'"

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Robinson appears in a brief scene in the final season's 14th episode. Kudrow's Phoebe Buffay goes to get her name changed following her marriage to Paul Rudd's Mike Hannigan. She gets off on the wrong foot with Robinson's clerk when she loudly observes, "This place is so depressing. If I worked here I'd kill myself."

Unsure which of their last names to put before the other, Phoebe is stunned to learn that she can change her full name to anything she wants (she eventually goes with the sensible choice of Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock). "Oh, this could take a while," she jokes, but Robinson's character curtly replies, "Get out of my line."

Craig Robinson on 'The Office'.

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"What's crazy about that audition is, I went early, and it was like 14 white guys dressed like limo drivers. I walked in and I was like, 'Okay, I think I'm too early,'" Robinson recalled. But he won the role, good news he still recalls receiving. "That was a sweet moment too, to find that out, when you're out there in Hollywood trying to make it."

Robinson would land his big break the year after, when he began portraying warehouse foreman Darryl Philbin on *The Office*. He won two Screen Actors Guild Actor Awards for the part, when the sitcom picked up Best Ensemble at the 2007 and 2008 ceremonies.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Comedy”