Friends in need
Matt’s best-kept secrets
He became a household name on Friends, earning himself a cool $1.4 million per episode by the end, but while Matt LeBlanc mourned the finish of the sitcom in 2004, he says life actually changed “for good” once it was over. “Ten years with Friends was like a school,” the actor, 50, tells Woman’sDay. “There are only five other people on the planet who know what that was like to be a part of. The farewell was emotional. “I had quit smoking and on the last episode, I started smoking again. It was very sad. You like to think your career is
always going to go upwards, but it was hard to imagine success beyond that. It was the closing of an amazing chapter in all our lives.”
However, after a decade as lovable Joey Tribbiani, Matt insists he was ready to step out of the limelight and enjoy a normal life. “After the show ended, I wanted to take a year off and just relax, but I had such a good time, I took another year. That was even better and I said, ‘Maybe one more,’ and it turned into five or six years.”
Matt boasts that he’s practically a “professional at doing nothing” because during his time on Friends, there was precious little time to do so, with him and his co-stars – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer – in high demand, watched each week by more than 52 million viewers in the US alone.
“We never looked at it as the phenomenon that it had become,” he confesses. “For us, it was just this little intimate show that happened in this building with no windows. We would go in there every day, work really hard and put our best foot forward. We enjoyed it, but we got paid. It was nice.”
Matt’s fondest memories are from his time behind the scenes on set, and he says he and his co-stars all kept
each other grounded as their fame grew exponentially.
“We had a very interesting policy on that show,” he tells. “It was like, ‘You check your ego at the door when you come in the building,’ so there were six egos lined up by the exit every day. We would watch one another, nurse one another and support one another. It was 10 years and I have never laughed harder. Everyone should have one of those experiences. It was really great.”
Gearingup!
But the actor – who went on to star in a spin-off called
Joey for two years – confesses it was the fans that made the show special.
He smiles, “I have had people come up to me and say, ‘My mum had cancer and the only thing that lifted her spirits was watching Friends,’ or, ‘I went to school abroad and had no friends, so you guys were my friends,’ or, ‘I got divorced and thought the world was over, but you guys made me smile.’”
These days, Matt is back on the small screen, but in a very different role, having taken over as the host of ever-popular motoring show
TopGear. And with a large collection of cars at his Los Angeles home, it’s a natural calling for the star.
“Driving and cars are a great passion for me,” he says. “The first memory I had behind a wheel is being really small, going on camping trips with my grandparents and sitting on their knee. I am so old now. That was when nobody wore a seatbelt.
“I remember sitting on my grandfather’s lap and steering the car, with him on the pedals. He’d tell me, ‘Keep it in the middle of the road now!’ I was probably eight or nine. I also remember learning to drive a car myself. I think I was 12.”
Away from the cameras, Matt – who is currently dating 33-year-old TopGear producer Aurora Mulligan – likes nothing better than to spend time with Marina, the 14-year-old daughter he shares with his former wife, model Melissa McKnight.
“My daughter is a speed freak like me,” says Matt. “The thing I noticed when I became a father was that I was much more patient. I was really impressed with the capacity I had for love. I did not think I was able to love someone as much as I love my daughter. I was blown away, like, wow!
“It was amazing to me and I still, to this day, can’t sleep past 6am, even though she’s 14. She says, ‘You don’t have to work. You can have a lie-in.’ But those days are over. It’s primal being a dad.”