Lisa Kudrow reveals cruel taunt that marked early years on show that made her a star: 'Sixth Friend'

Friends star Lisa Kudrow may have found lasting fame off the back of the TV show that made her a star, but according to the actress, she often felt like the least popular of the six 'friends'.

Kudrow, who won a generation of fans playing the kooky character of Phoebe Buffay has made a sad admission about her time on the hit show, which initially ran from 1994 to 2004.

The 62-year-old actress, who took her Friends fame and turned it into a long-lasting career, has now revealed she was initially the least popular of the six core cast members, and was even referred to by her own talent agency as "the sixth Friend".

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Kudrow, who found movie stardom thanks to the 1997 film, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, made the revelation in an interview with The Independent.

Kudrow, who is now starring in the sitcom The Comeback, gave a heartbreaking insight into the early days of Friends during the interview.

"Nobody cared about me," she said of the period when she and her co-stars first found overnight fame.

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"There were certain parts of [my talent agency] that just referred to me as 'the sixth friend'.

"There was no vision for me, and no expectations about the kind of career I could have.

"There was just, like, 'Boy, is she lucky she got on that show'."

However a string of roles filmed during Friends, including the 1999 Robert De Niro film Analyse This, changed that.

"And that's when the agents and business people started circling, wanting to put me in romantic comedies and things," Kudrow said, before adding, "I knew that wasn't gonna work. I'm just not adorable".

During the same interview, Kudrow also spoke about the often-repeated story that the six then-struggling actors were flown on a private plane to Las Vegas where the show's director James Burrows sat them down and told them to enjoy their last taste of anonymity before becoming stars.

She also refuted claims that once the show was a hit, she was the cast member that urged them all to negotiate their salaries as a collective, which resulted in them each earning US$1 million (AU$1.4 million) an episode.

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"I absolutely was not the ringleader," she said.

"And that was reported, and it wasn't true."

But Kudrow had the last laugh, forging an impressive career which brought her a reported net worth of about $190 million.

She is also largely considered to be one of the most successful of the Friends stars and has enjoyed a happy private life.

She has been married to advertising executive Michael Stern since 1995.

They share one son, Julian, 27, an actor, who recently worked alongside his mother on the very sound stage he once visited on the Friends set.

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