Friends star Lisa Kudrow admits she never watched the show during 10 years on air
When Lydia and Paul's stunning LA villa goes on the market, they're quickly swarmed by buyers. However, it's more than just an attractive property in a coveted neighbourhood; it's a home steeped in dark secrets that the couple is desperate to keep hidden. From the creative genius behind Netflix's hit show Dead To Me comes No Good Deed, a darkly comic tale featuring television titans Lisa Kudrow of Friends fame and Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano.
Despite both actors achieving their sitcom success on the same studio lot, this project marks the first time they've acted together. Ray Romano, 66, shared: "A funny story is that Everybody Loves Raymond was filmed two stages away from Friends. Which I informed Lisa of because she didn’t know. I knew for nine years, like, ‘Oh, The Beatles are over there.’ And she didn’t know me because I was the guy who spun the plates on The Ed Sullivan Show and she was a member of The Beatles."
Meanwhile, Lisa Kudrow, 61, confessed she wasn't a TV watcher back in her Friends era, saying: "I didn’t watch TV in the 90s while we were doing Friends. I didn’t watch TV or other sitcoms. But during Covid, Everybody Loves Raymond got me through. Every night before bed, I watched two or three hours of it."
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On set, the "neurotic" duo really hit it off – so much so that their real-life partners can't even bear to watch the Netflix show. Chatting about their connection, Lisa gushed: "I’ve seen almost everything Ray has done and thought, ‘God, wouldn’t it be great to get to work with him?’ That’s why I was so excited to play Ray’s wife – not be your wife, you understand. Your wife understands, right?" Lisa, wed to advertising executive Michel Stern, said.
Ray, who is married to actress Anna Romano, replied, “Yes, of course. My wife isn’t gonna watch.” Lisa added, “Neither will my husband.”
The series sees contractor Paul eager to sell their beloved family abode to retire, clear his debts, and escape LA, while Lydia isn’t ready to give up decades of cherished family memories. Ray could relate to Lydia’s emotional tug-of-war, having not parted ways with his mother's house until he was 29.
"Some memories are happy and some not so much but there is a history with us. It’s not that easy to let go of all that," he reflected. "When my mum passed in 2021, we had to sell the home I grew up in and lived for 29 years – I lived with my mother until I was 29," Ray confessed, "It’s funny because I’ve been out of that house for over 30 years. And still, when it was sold, it was not easy. It was emotional. Your personality is part of it."
Lydia and her husband soon become targets for a swarm of curious buyers. Soon-to-be parents Dennis (played by O-T Fagbenle) and his wife Carla (Teyonah Parris) are juggling money woes alongside the pressure from Dennis' domineering mum.
Margo (the fabulous Linda Cardellini) dreams of making a quick profit with her property developer beau, while has-been celeb JD (Luke Wilson) is on the hunt for a more modest abode. It's a Legally Blonde reunion delight with Luke and Linda together again for the first time since their 2001 classic. Luke gushed about his co-star: "It was fun to see her again.
"Working with her, she’s like the engine that drives the scenes. She barks orders at me, which is very funny. Her character is overbearing, but Linda is just so funny about it. I feel very lucky to get the chance to work with her. To play somebody so unpleasant, you have to be very sensitive and smart."
Meanwhile, Hacks star Poppy Liu and A League Of Their Own's Abbi Jacobson portray Sarah and Leslie – a couple who've long pined after Lydia's home. They are loosely based on the brilliant mind behind the show, creator Liz Feldman and her wife, singer Rachael Cantu.
"This show was inspired by my search for my ‘dream’ house," Liz said. "I started looking during the pandemic. It was a very weird, dark time."
The writer opened up about her house-hunting experience, sharing: "I saw over 50 houses and every time I stepped into one, I could just feel the stories, the history. I was so curious about what had specifically happened within those walls. I realised that every house has its secrets. Then, as my wife and I were selling our house, I realised, ‘Oh yeah, we have some too.’"
Poppy teased that fans should get ready for an addictive watch: "The show is the TV version of a page-turner. You stay up until 5am needing to know what happens next. We felt that way reading it because each episode would roll out a couple of weeks apart," she explains. Co-star Abbi chimes in with her take on the series, saying, "This is a really fun show. There’s hard humour on top of really dark, sad stories. We need both right now as viewers. This hit all the boxes."
No Good Deed arrives on Netflix on Thursday 12 December.
