Why Lisa Kudrow Feared Emma Stone Thought She Was ‘The Worst Actress’

Lisa Kudrow revealed that she was concerned that fellow actress Emma Stonedidn’t think highly of her acting abilities.

In a March 2026 interview with Vanity Fair, Kudrow noted that she appeared in two films with Stone, 2009’s Paper Man, and Easy A, released in 2010.

“Emma’s phenomenally talented and she was then. And I had done like a smaller movie called Paper Man. That’s when I first met Emma and she was even younger,” recalled Kudrow during the Vanity Fair interview.

She then explained that while filming both Paper Man and Easy A, she wasn’t able to produce tears. She referenced that in Easy A, her character, Mrs. Griffith, has a breakdown in front of Olive (Stone) after it’s revealed she’s having an affair with a high school student.

“I was going through this period of, it lasted like five years, where I couldn’t cry. There were no tears coming and in this scene in particular, I was feeling devastated. I mean, everything there, and I was crying, but no tears were coming out, but I was crying. It’s just there were no tears, just dry. I don’t know what, it was the craziest thing,” said theFriendsstar.

She then shared that “all [she] could think” while filming the Easy A scene was “Emma Stone must think ‘I’m like the worst actress on the planet.” She then explained that Stone had already seen her have some difficulty trying to produce tears while playing her Paper Man character, Claire Dunn.

“There was a scene where I was supposed to be crying, talking to her, and it just wasn’t happening,” said Kudrow, who shared that the Paper Man scene ended up being cut from the film.

Kudrow clarified that she’s now able to cry with tears.

“I cry like a tic, to quote Teri Garr in Tootsie,” said the Comeback star in the March 2026 interview.

This story was originally published by Parade on Mar 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.