It is ironic that Lisa Kudrow, the star of the 1990s hit sitcom Friends, had very few buddies when she was growing up. During her teenage years, she spent countless evenings at home, alone, crying herself to sleep.

'I used to cry almost every night,' she says. 'With high school, for many people, it's just a case of trying to keep breathing and getting through it. I'd have felt more like a normal teenager if I had a boyfriend. But I never did. And I didn't like any of the guys in school. In fact, they all seemed so simplistic that I really could not see myself dating any of them.'

Kudrow turned 46 this year, and her school days are far behind her, but the subject has arisen courtesy of her latest movie, Bandslam, in which she plays the only major adult role in a film brimming with teenage characters and their innate passions and angst.

She is more than twice as old as most of her co-stars, including High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens, wonder- kid Alyson Michalka and new Hollywood hotshot Scott Porter.

'Being so much older than all the others did feel a little weird at times,' Kudrow says with a smile. 'In fact, it was probably just in my own head, because all the cast - apart from Gaelan Connell, the male lead, this was his first movie - everybody else has worked a lot, and they are total professionals.

'It's funny, too, because people are always asking me whether the younger cast came to me for advice but they don't need my advice on anything at all. They are all doing fantastically for themselves.'

Indeed they are, although so, too, is Kudrow, who, in the more than four years since Friends ended its 10-year run, has expanded her resume with her own sitcom, Web Therapy, which she produces (it is now in its second season), and a clutch of feature films such as P.S. I Love You, Hotel Of Dogs, and now Bandslam, the story of an anxious young man, Will (Connell), who struggles to fit in at a New Jersey high school.

'I think it's a great film and certainly a cut above what you might expect from a high school movie revolving around a 'battle of the bands',' adds Kudrow.

'It's beautifully written and the characters and dialogue feel very real. School is a difficult time for people; it is that period in your life where you are figuring out who you are. For me, when I was at school, I just wanted to get to a good college and get a good education.'

She graduated from Vassar with a degree in biology. But while she thought she would embark on a career as a medical researcher, much like her father, one of her brother's friends encouraged her to try out for The Groundlings, a Los Angeles comedy troupe that once counted Saturday Night Live funnyman Will Ferrell among its members. She loved it.�

A few film and TV roles followed, and then, in 1992, she snagged the recurring cameo role of Ursula Buffay, a skittish waitress in the US sitcom Mad About You. Two years later, she was persuaded to expand the part for Friends (1994 to 2004), which she duly did, creating the character of Phoebe, Ursula's twin sister.

During the series' run, she won an Emmy and two Screen Actors Guild awards for the role.

'I miss Friends because it was fun,' she says, 'but I don't feel like we could go back because it wouldn't be the same.''

What about a movie spin-off like Sex And The City?

'I don't know. I keep hearing about it, and if it could be done, sure. But while Sex And The City was a single-camera show and could translate to the cinema, Friends was multi-camera in front of an audience, so it's a pretty different feel. It would be tricky to pull it off and I don't think our creators are desperate to do anything soon.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.