Living off his reel life

> Matt LeBlanc is proud to have played Joey Tribbiani for 23 years, first on then its spin-off series Joey, and the current Episodes, now in its final fifth season

IF EVER an actor were made for a part, it’s surely former Friends star Matt LeBlanc, who plays a former Friends star called Matt LeBlanc in the inside-Hollywood sitcom Episodes ( right).

If that sounds confusingly meta, LeBlanc ( below, right) also wasn’t exactly sure what he was getting into when he was approached by Friends co-creator David Crane and partner Jeffrey Klarik in 2010 to star in their ambitious new farce.

“I thought: ‘That’s a show I would watch’,” the 50-yearold recalls of meeting up with the writers over lunch in Santa Barbara to discuss the idea of a comedy series satirising the US television industry.

“My only question was: ‘What do you mean, I’m playing myself? I don’t understand. That’s a little strange’. They said: ‘We’re not making a documentary – it’s a character with your name on it’.”

In fact, LeBlanc does play himself – or at least a fictionalised, vainglorious, funhouse mirror image of himself – in the weekly half-hour Showtime comedy.

Episodes tells the story of a husband-and-wife writing team – played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig – who have a nightmarish experience adapting their award-winning British comedy show for American TV.

documentary An Inconvenient Truth followed the efforts of former vice president of the United States Al Gore to show us the serious effects of global warming. Most critics loved the film.

Now, 10 years on, sequel is finally now cinemas.

Audiences will see that the former vice president is still continuing his tireless fight to save Earth from an environmental disaster.

Gore’s fiery passion, his sadness, and his utmost sincerity for his mission have not diminished with time.

He even visits people around the world who have survived natural disasters and gets them to speak about their experience.

In the 2006 documentary, its in

LeBlanc amplifies himself as an outrageously unsuitable and untrustworthy choice for the lead part, foist upon the writers by network executives who still remember the money Friends made.

“To get my head back into this, to promote the show, it’s like putting on an old leather jacket that fits just right,” LeBlanc told AFP backstage at a Q&A in Beverly Hills to preview the fifth and final season.

LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer had the world at their feet in 2004 when Friends ( below, left) ended a glorious decade that had earned them US$1 million (RM4.26 million) an episode, and propelled them to global stardom.

His first major setback came when the spin-off series Joey – relocating his beloved Friends character Joey Tribbiani to Los Angeles – was cancelled after just two seasons.

He is on record as being very happy with the reported US$15 million (RM63.9 million) a season fee, but regretting that he didn’t insist on Crane and Klarik coming on board as writers.

When they came calling for Episodes, LeBlanc had been on a six-year break at his ranch in southern California, cut off from showbiz but enjoying the fortune that Friends and its spin-off had earned him.

“I had a less-than-spectacular experience coming off of Joey, and for me the idea of working with these two guys – who are like family, we get along great, I really have so much respect for them as writers – that was a big part of it,” he told the audience in Beverly Hills.

To play the part of his puffedup caricature, often the butt of the joke, LeBlanc was required to leave his ego at the door, and being able to trust Crane and Klaric was essential.

“I knew something that I was uncomfortable with at the outset would be safe in their hands, and that they wouldn’t throw me under the bus,” he said.

Episodes has received 10 Emmy nominations since it debuted in 2011, including four for LeBlanc, and the actor won a Golden Globe for the first season in 2012.

A self-confessed “car nut”, he was unveiled last year as the new co-presenter of the BBC’s revamped Top Gear show, and has begun filming season two of CBS sitcom Man with a Plan.

After 23 years playing Joey – in Friends, then solo Joey, then Matt LeBlanc living off the spoils of playing Joey – the actor could be forgiven for wanting to leave the character far behind.

“I think it’s futile to try and do that. That show’s going to follow all six of us forever,” he said.

“And I don’t want to – I’m proud of it. It was a great thing to be a part of.”

However, he added that Joey Tribbiani, a character that has brought him stardom, riches, a small measure of opprobrium, and a great deal of acclaim, is unlikely to be put back to work any time soon. “Everyone asks about a Friends reunion – is there going to be another show. My opinion is that the book is better than the movie,” he told AFP, speaking figuratively. “I think it’s best left to everyone’s imagination as to their own opinion of what those characters are doing now.” – AFP