SPOILERS: This post contains details about The Comeback series finale ‘Valerie Cherish’
More than 20 years after bringing Valerie Cherish into our living rooms, Lisa Kudrow said goodbye to the leading lady in a touching The Comeback finale.
Ahead of Sunday’s concluding episode “Valerie Cherish,” the Emmy winner said “being able to put Valerie in the lens of Jane’s [Laura Silverman] camera was unbelievable” during her confessional in the final scene of the HBO mockumentary reality series, which Kudrow co-created with Michael Patrick King in 2005.
“And Valerie never felt humiliated is absolutely true, and to me, it’s everything,” she explained. “It’s a little meta because the show itself, after the first season, people, actors, a lot of people would say, ‘Oh my God, that must have been really hard to do because it was so painful.’ And I just like blink, ‘Painful? I don’t remember. I didn’t feel an ounce of pain.’”
Kudrow added, “Valerie spins it and believes her spin—and I called it spin—and then I realized what’s the difference? Spin your reality, what you let in, what you don’t. And that’s how a person can go on, that’s how people in dire situations can make a joke and laugh at some point. That’s how we survive. And also just hope and optimism. And she wasn’t wrong.”
Longtime fans of the show were also happy to see the return of Malin Akerman’s Juna in the penultimate “Valerie Chases the Truth,” set years after Kudrow’s character took the young actress under her wing in the first season.
Laura Silverman as Jane Benson and Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in ‘The Comeback’
“Because there’s a history there, and it’s someone that is a perceived success, Juna Milken, and someone who always saw Valerie as a decent person,” noted Kudrow. “I always saw her that way. So, it’s an important person in Valerie’s life, and Valerie, it turns out, is an important person in Juna’s life, when she says, ‘Way back, everyone said watch out, everyone’s out for themselves, and you weren’t like that. And I’ve taken that attitude with me, and I’ve had a blast.’ And honestly, to me, that was my experience on Friends.”
The actress explained that her experience on the iconic 1994-2004 NBC sitcom “informs this and kind of informed how Valerie was. Yeah, she wanted her role in the first season, and yes, you look out for your career, but you don’t cut people off at the knees over it.”
More than 20 years after ending her tenure as Phoebe Buffay on Friends and introducing the world to Valerie Cherish with The Comeback, Kudrow’s experience came full-circle when her son Julian Stern appeared this season as AI technician Evan.
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish and Malin Akerman as Juna Milken in ‘The Comeback’
“He was Evan and I was Valerie,” said Kudrow. “I mean, he was so much Evan that it was easy. … I was really proud, but mostly proud because when other people went, ‘Wait, I just found out that’s your son. He’s so nice, he’s so great. How did you do that, raising him in LA?’ It’s like, I didn’t, he came in that way, that’s him. I didn’t do anything. But he’s great. He’s talented. He’s so much better than I was at 27, for sure.”
Read on about Lisa Kudrow’s touching farewell to Valerie Cherish in the series finale of The Comeback, now available to stream on HBO Max.
DEADLINE: In the finale, we see Valerie’s arc come full circle. She’s taken a stand against AI and the studio. Tell me what it was like bringing her to that point.
LISA KUDROW: Well, because it’s Valerie, who’s not taking a bigger worldview of AI, but it was that the AI in place for How’s That is serviceable, it’s not great writing. And it was never intended to be great writing is what she finds out that they just wanted sort of a second screen that people will put on and have it going in the background as they do whatever, and she’s been killing herself the whole season trying to make it great, not realizing that it was never ever gonna happen. So, it’s a betrayal, and then finding out, “well, we scanned your digital image so we can just use you”—because I’m not entirely sure, but I don’t think there are any protections by the unions, or by SAG-AFTRA—but anyway, she signs it away and then again, has to decide, “What do I do?” Because I have to say, as Valerie, not while we were writing, but maybe a little while we were writing, but there’s that whole cast that she’s bonded with, and she’s just gonna leave them, is what she’s initially thinking, you know? “I can’t just leave, it’s my show. How do I just let them use an avatar?” But then because she stood up to the ‘Big Three’ in a very polite way about trashing the show she’s on, didn’t feel right. And there’s so many things going on in that the ‘Big Three’ meeting.
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, Bradley Whitford as Jack Stevens, Justin Theroux as Matt Wright and Adam Scott as Ben Morrow in ‘The Comeback’
DEADLINE: Yeah, what was it like working with those guys?
KUDROW: Oh my God, it was really thrilling. It was really thrilling. Oh God, Justin [Theroux], just the look, he is so intimidating, the look on his face, so intimidating. And Adam Scott so perfect as that smart, funny writer who keeps clipping, so it’s a little disarming. And then, “the future of television depends on what you do now” and then, “whoa, what just happened?” They’re very nice, reasonable, smart. Bradley Whitford’s character, Jack Stevens, he’s listening to her. They’re like, “You’ve gotta say something, you’ve gotta destroy your show because 10 or 20 writers could work.” She’s got 200 people working on her show, and she had just seen them all so scared that they’re gonna lose their jobs to AI, and that’s real. And so, they’re saying, “Trash your show so that for writers.” It’s all big, but to me, the last episode, there’s a lot going on, and the very end is the thing I think of.
DEADLINE: Yeah, the monologue really hit me in the feels and the way it faded from black-and-white to color was really awesome too.
KUDROW: That was Michael Patrick King. And Elie Smolkin, our DP. Being able to put Valerie in the lens of Jane’s camera was unbelievable. And Valerie never felt humiliated is absolutely true, and to me, it’s everything. It’s a little meta because the show itself, after the first season, people, actors, a lot of people would say, “Oh my God, that must have been really hard to do because it was so painful.” And I just like blink, “Painful? I don’t remember. I didn’t feel an ounce of pain.” Valerie spins it and believes her spin—and I called it spin—and then I realized what’s the difference? Spin your reality, what you let in, what you don’t. And that’s how a person can go on, that’s how people in dire situations can make a joke and laugh at some point. That’s how we survive. And also just hope and optimism. And she wasn’t wrong. Everything with Paulie G, her whole attitude was, “Well, he’s going through something, it’s not me.”
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in ‘The Comeback’
DEADLINE: And I loved seeing that arc as well, how they’ve basically become friends at this point.
KUDROW: Yeah, there’s an understanding in some respect. Yeah, but also, she doesn’t trust him. He seems to act out when he’s scared.
DEADLINE: Like you were saying, seeing Valerie in Jane’s lens, I really appreciated that as well, and also seeing Jane defend her on TV and how she made her proud. Why was that relationship so important to see full-circle?
KUDROW: Because Jane was so conflicted that first season at the end, and she just didn’t show up because she couldn’t bear it to see Valerie watch the show and that Jane had manipulated her as a producer of a reality show. She kind of got attached to Valerie. But Jane still sees Valerie as she did always; maybe she liked her, but I think she just felt like, “Oh, she’s sort of this witless victim who needs a little protection.” And when Valerie tells her, “Humiliated? No, I didn’t feel humiliated.” And that’s funny, that you have to agree to be humiliated is right. And Val didn’t sign up for that. It’s called adapting and surviving, and that’s what we do as human beings. I mean we have to. I mean you can look at it as compromise or you can look at it as coping, but our existence depends on adaptation.
DEADLINE: Absolutely. And I also loved seeing Juna come back in the penultimate. Why was that important to have that reunion?
KUDROW: Because there’s a history there, and it’s someone that is a perceived success, Juna Milken, and someone who always saw Valerie as a decent person. I always saw her that way. So, it’s an important person in Valerie’s life, and Valerie, it turns out, is an important person in Juna’s life, when she says, “Way back, everyone said watch out, everyone’s out for themselves, and you weren’t like that. And I’ve taken that attitude with me, and I’ve had a blast.” And honestly, to me, that was my experience on Friends. We’ve all heard, “Oh, everyone’s so competitive and women are so competitive.” But no, we weren’t. We were nothing but supportive, all six of us with each other. So, I know that’s a possibility. And also, you’ve heard about Bob Newhart sets. Oh, so nice, and he’s nice and he’s supportive and he laughs at other people even though he’s a comedian. And I worked on a couple of Bob Newhart shows, so I saw it and went, “Oh, that would be great. I know that doesn’t exist anywhere but here.” But then how lucky I was to have it at Friends.
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in ‘The Comeback’
DEADLINE: I love to hear that.
KUDROW: So, that informs this and kind of informed how Valerie was. Yeah, she wanted her role in the first season, and yes, you look out for your career, but you don’t cut people off at the knees over it.
DEADLINE: And I interviewed Julian a few weeks ago. He’s really cool. I really loved his character. What was it like working with him?
KUDROW: Oh, so good. And you know what, he was Evan and I was Valerie. I mean, he was so much Evan that it was easy. I mean, boy, he was pretty grounded and like, he’s a real person. I was really proud, but mostly proud because when other people went, “wait, I just found out that’s your son,” and they said, “He’s so nice, he’s so great. How did you do that, raising him in LA?” It’s like, I didn’t, he came in that way, that’s him. I didn’t do anything. But he’s great. He’s talented. He’s so much better than I was at 27, for sure.
DEADLINE: Another thing I was curious about, way back in the season premiere, I loved the Traitors appearance that you had. Was there an attempt to get Alan Cumming in there? Because It would have been an awesome Romy & Michele reunion.
KUDROW: Well, it wasn’t really possible. But no, there wasn’t really an attempt because we needed to streamline it as much as we could, and just make it another reason that the algorithm would select Valerie.
Damian Young as Mark Berman and Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in ‘The Comeback’
DEADLINE: Oh, OK, that makes sense.
KUDROW: Yeah, because something went viral on a very popular show that she did.
DEADLINE: Well, on that note, can you give me an update on the Romy & Michele sequel?
KUDROW: We’ll see. We’re almost there. It looks like it’ll happen.
