Matt, is it hard to recreate this character in a new setting if the people you created the character with are no longer around you?

No, not really.

Why, because you know him so well?

Yes. It's been ten years. So I feel like I have really wrote the book on the guy. I know what it is that makes him tick. It was a little awkward in the beginning to pluck him out of New York, and put him here. And here he is in this kind of father-figure role with his nephew, and dealing with his sister, and trying to feel out L.A. So it has been an adjustment for him and I guess an adjustment for me as well.

Is there a magic formula to get the sort of chemistry between you and your co-stars?

I think it is trial and error and Andrea and I hit it off right away. Paulo and I were a little rocky in the beginning. But a couple of shows, and he's snapped right into line. And Jennifer Coolidge, I got on with right away. You know, when I look back to the beginning of Friends, I remember six actors coming together and realising, just by the dynamic of how the show worked, if we all get along, this would be easier. So I remember all of us entering into these relationships with a very open mind, and wanting to like each other. And sometimes having to work a little harder at it, and it sometimes being effortless. And over the years a bond was formed. And the bond is forming here, you know. It is important.

Have you kept in touch with your old co-stars?

Yes, I see them. I don't see them as much as I did when we were all together, obviously. They are off doing other things, and I am here. I actually talk to them on the phone more than I see them. But yes, I keep in touch.

Do they comment on your new show?

Yes, they are very supportive. I mean, if there are problems, are they brutally honest with things they may not like about it? I doubt it. They have been very complimentary, and supportive if there is something that they maybe don't think is working right. But they also understand it is the first season. And you know, you go through growing pains in the first season of the show. You are sort of finding the shape of it, and finding what works and what doesn't work so good. And what doesn't work maybe can be retooled a little bit. You know, there was a lot of late nights in the first season of Friends too.

Will any appear as guest stars?

Not this year. We talked about it. And it really feels like it is too soon. But I would imagine at some point, yes. It would be fun to open the door and see Chandler standing there. I would love it if it could be done in a way where the audience has been given enough time to establish a relationship with the new characters so that when one of the characters from Friends come here, you are not only seeing them with Joey, but seeing them interact with these new characters who the audience now knows as well. Let the show stand and breathe on its own. And then bring that in as a bonus, not as a spike-in-the-ratings device.

What in your view in the biggest difference between Friends and this show?

Friends was a true ensemble. This is more the world through Joey's eyes.

Does Paulo look at you like a father figure?

A little bit, yes. I mean it was funny in the beginning to watch them all kind of flounder. It is very different, technically, not harder or easier, just really different to do multi-camera half hour, where you have three walls. And it is more like a stage production. But then you throw in cameras, and then it is weird too because you have four cameras going at once. The stage is evenly lit. You have your technical skills. You have to be careful where you are, where you move, not to move on the joke. Because if you move on the punch line it is distracting, and the joke is not as funny. I mean, there are a bunch of little tiny things like that. And I just kind of walk them through it and help them. Now at this point they've all pretty much got it down.

What kind of reaction do you get from the public? Do they say, 'How you doing,' and all that stuff?

Slowly. I speak slowly. I always have the upper hand in those conversations. I've lost count how many people have said "How you doing"...

When you are on the screen there with your shirt off in the Jacuzzi for example, do you ever get self-conscious? Is there anything you wouldn't do for comedy?

I've had a turkey on my head. I mean, I've done some pretty radical stuff. So I am pretty much down to try anything. I mean, I think the key to comedy is you have to push yourself, cross the threshold, so you are right into - wow this is embarrassing. Right in that area between the embarrassing and ridiculous. You have to learn how to get comfortable in there. If you can spend as much time as you can in there, that is always where it feels the funniest. It's funny, because dramatic actors we have worked with at times get in that area and they like freak out. And I'm like, 'no, it is okay!' Pull your pants down.

Do you find as a comic actor that there is a pressure when you meet fans to be up all time?

Maybe not to be Joey, but just sort of buzzy? A lot of people say I am much more laid back and relaxed than Joey is. Joey is a little more hyper than me. And after people talk to me for two, three, four minutes, they say, 'are you okay, is something wrong? What is the matter?'. It is just that I am a real person, not an actor on a show. But to me it is flattering. When someone comes up and calls me Joey and says 'how you doing?' to me it is a sign that I have done my job well, and they believe what I am doing. I get a kick out of it.

Do you have one of those La-Z-Boy chairs at home that you had on Friends?

Hell, yeah! You know, with La-Z-Boy, we actually did a thing for charity where they had asked each of the six of us to design a chair. And they were going to build two of each of them and give us one, and then auction the other one off for paediatric AIDS. So I have that one at my house. And it's pretty good.




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