Friends’ David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc’s Careers Struggling as Jen, Courteney and Lisa Soar

Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox are all pushing full steam ahead with their TV, film and streaming careers right now. However, their male Friends costars, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc, are left trailing in their wake and wondering where it all went wrong! 

“In the wake of Matthew Perry‘s untimely passing, the contrast between the female Friends cast members and the remaining male cast couldn’t be sharper,” an insider close to multiple cast members exclusively tells Closer. “Jen Aniston has a full blown new franchise on her hands with The Morning Show, and she has years worth of stories she wants to keep telling there. Courteney Cox has found herself once again at the center of the Scream films, and winning over a new young generation of fans in the process. Even Lisa Kudrow is branching out in the streaming era with her surprising turn to action-adventure as one of the leads in the upcoming Time Bandits reboot.”

The source claims “it’s been going a lot less well for David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.”

“Schwimmer continues to chase demanding roles in indie film and TV projects but not to much success, and Matt is a lifelong sitcom specialist who finds himself in the rare position of not having a steady gig at the moment,” the insider adds. 

While a second source insists Matthew, 56, had “purposely taken time off” and has “been enjoying” the break, the insider notes that none of the Friends actors “even need to work.”

“They all made their fortunes while in their thirties and only act in stuff now because they’re passionate about it. But particularly with David Schwimmer, he thought he would have a much more robust acting career post-Friends than he has right now and he’s constantly in the position of making up for lost time,” the source continues. “You can see in the Friends reunion from a couple of years ago, David and Matt don’t want to be forgotten – they still have a mark they want to leave and it’s very strange for both of them to see the female cast members thriving and working on interesting long term projects while these guys can barely get arrested.”

In Touch previously reported that Courteney, 60, wants a “small guest role” in Jen’s AppleTV+ series. “Courteney has a lot of ideas about the kind of role she could play,” a source told the outlet in January. “Courteney just loves to work and be busy doing something.”

Now, the insider tells Closer, “The only thing stopping either of these guys from asking [Jennifer] directly for that kind of favor is stubborn male pride!”

The Friends cast lost a key figure when Matthew Perry died at age 56 in October 2023. The iconic actor was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home. His cause of death was later determined to be from “acute effects of ketamine” with drowning as a contributing factor “due to the likelihood of submersion into the pool as he lapsed into unconsciousness,” the autopsy report stated.