Alan Cumming has spoken warmly about his long-running friendship with Lisa Kudrow after the Friends star wrote a glowing tribute to him for Time’s 100 Most Influential People of 2026 list.
Speaking to Us Weekly at the Time100 Gala on Thursday, 23 April, Cumming, 61, said he had no idea Kudrow, 62, would be the one to write about him.
“I didn’t know it was going to be her. … They don’t tell you. And so it was just such a lovely surprise,” he said. “And you know, everything that she said about me, I completely feel about her.”
Kudrow’s tribute was candid.
She wrote that Cumming is “just as spectacular in person as he is on your television screen.”
“He steps into the room, and you just can’t help but think, ‘Yes. Glorious.’ Everything about him is thrilling. And yet, there’s something about him that makes you feel like you can take a deep, calming breath whenever he’s near. He’s so fully himself, so free, so authentic, that simply being around him feels like a celebration.”
She also praised him as a host on The Traitors.
“Watching him host The Traitors is so much fun, not only because he always looks fantastic, but because he plays such a great villain,” she wrote, before describing the version of Cumming that his friends know.
“The Alan I know off-screen is sweet, bubbly, and friendly. He chooses joy, he chooses glee, and he sees the wonderful in everything.”
Cumming traced their friendship back to the 1997 comedy Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, where the pair first connected.
“We see each other sporadically, and work together sporadically. But I just always think of her as a really good friend,” he said.
He was also touched that Kudrow hosted a panel for The Traitors in 2025. “It’s a lovely thing about knowing someone for a really long time, and having it be a genuine friendship,” he added.
Kudrow had spoken about Cumming separately earlier this month in an interview with Vanity Fair, describing him as “such a force” with “joie de vivre”, and saying she was thrilled when he was cast in Romy and Michele all those years ago.
