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Matt Lauer: Well! He played the struggling actor on the hit show Friends, but actor Matt Leblanc isn't struggling at all. He's played Joey Tribbiani for more than a decade now. And now he's saying how are you doing to another season of the spinoff "Joey". On Tonight's episode: Joey is on the set of his new movie alongside John Larry Kat.
--Joey Tribbiani, Benjaman Awkwood.
--Wow! I know you. I saw you do Shakespeare on Broadway when I was a kid.
--Oh, 'Twelfth Night'?
--Well, I don't remember the date, no.
Matt Lauer: Matt Leblanc, good morning. Good to see you.
Matt Leblanc: You too, how are you?
Matt Lauer: So, so you got a movie!
Matt Leblanc: Joey gets his big break this year, yeah~~.
Matt Lauer: This is huge.Tell me about your thoughts, I mean, you know, not Joey's thoughts, but your thoughts. Going into the season Number 2 and how that compares to when this was all starting a year ago.
Matt Leblanc: Uh, Well, you know, it's like, it's like any new show. And it's a, it's a little bit weird, because a lot of people feel like, well, it's, in some way, it's a continuation of Friends, but it's not really. It's really a brand new show. We just have a leg up, where we have a character that people already know and seem to care about. And going into the second season, I think it's a little less pressure than it was last year. But still there's, you know, always that pressure to perform. So it's kind of ...It's kind of a grey area where we're just kind of feeling my way through it.
Matt Lauer: So much has been made, change has been made on the show in between seasons, there are some new writers. That's one of the major areas. So how is that affecting the script you seeing for season two?
Matt Leblanc: Uh, I think the stories are bigger. The models-sort of bigger, faster, funnier. We've got the character, like a buddy for Joey to have. So you can get out of the house more, open up the show and that enables us to have L.A., be more of a center, set piece in the show. (It's a backdrop.)
Matt Lauer: Instead of your shows it's a backdrop.
Matt Leblanc: Instead of just being in the apartment all the time. And this year he will be getting out, and the biggest thing probably is that he's getting his big break and star's rising.
Matt Lauer: You mentioned adding a friend , Zac is the character's name. And in the press, they started right, Ok, he's trying to create another Chandler. And you've been quick to say no. We're not trying to clone Chandler.
Matt Leblanc: No, no, no. It's uh,...I think that would be...that would be a mistake to try to do that. That was a such a great dynamic, the Joey-Chandler thing. This is...It's a new relationship. He's a guy…He's completely different than what Chandler was. Zac is sort of a schemer, scammer, and always has an angle, always has something going on, always has his eye on the back door or to something. And Joey, who is an innocent, gets sort of dragged into these plots that Zac comes up with and his honesty and his charm gets the both of them out of trouble that Zac gets him into.
Matt Lauer: When Friends was started more than a decade ago, you were kind of unknown, it was a big break in your career.These days, your life is different. You're married. You have a daughter. I'm assuming you're not hurt from money. So how does that affect your attitude in terms of this whole career picture now?
Matt Leblanc: Well, I do my best to try to...to try to keep them separate, you know. It's just as important to me now as it was then, I mean, I wanna do good work. I push the writers to make it as good and as rich and colorful as it can be...
Matt Lauer: But you don't depend on them to put food on the table any more?
Matt Leblanc: No, that I don't. I mean, that pressure's off. Now it's just sort of, it's ...but the different thing now as before when I was just starting now, if it didn't go so good, no one would really... I wouldn't catch the heat for it, but now sort of as, you know, as an experienced veteran, I guess you can call me, it's, ok,better be good now, it's gonna land in your laps. So it's kinda like you trade one side of promise for another. But it's all good promise to have, no complaints.
Matt Lauer: Wow, we're thrilled you're back on NBC, so it's good to have you here in New York. Come on back and see us.
Matt Leblanc: Good to see you, absolutely good to see you, absolutely.
Matt Lauer: Now come on, and by the way, you can catch Joey tonight at 8/7 central time right here at NBC.
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