Matt LeBlanc plays himself in new TV show

Lily

B.R
Staff member
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Matt LeBlanc produces a photo of his cattle ranch north of Santa Barbara. There are cows grazing picturesquely among rolling Californian hills. "I love cattle," he confesses. "I have branded cattle, tackled cattle, had my way with cattle." He pauses for full effect and instantly it's as if Joey Tribbiani, the character he made so famous in Friends, is sitting at the table. Funny, wisecracking and familiar. But although the outward appearance is roughly the same, the voice still deep and magnificent, and the jokes never far away, the real Matt LeBlanc is a little too quiet to really be Joey.

He is, by his own admission, much more reserved. "Joey was very high energy, high key. I'm not really like that," he explains, neatening the cutlery at the table where we are about to eat lunch in The Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. "I'm a lot more low key." Getting to know the real Matt LeBlanc has become something of a media challenge of late. Not because he is especially elusive, although it has been nearly five years since he last worked, but because he stars in a new comedy series this January in which he plays himself. Except that it's not really himself. It's Matt LeBlanc, but a fake Matt LeBlanc. Confused? You will be.

"None of it's me. Even the parts that are me, are not me," he adds, rather less than helpfully. Episodes follows a British husband and wife screenwriting team, played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig, who have a hit television show in Britain about a boarding school with an old-fashioned headmaster, played by Richard Griffiths. The show is so successful it is bought by an American television network, who butcher it in customary Hollywood remake style. How about replacing the headmaster with Matt LeBlanc? How about having LeBlanc as a hockey coach? How about changing the show's name? LeBlanc, not being English, 62 years old, fat, or in any way old-fashioned headmaster material, is an absurd choice - and therein lies the humour.

"I am just so ridiculously wrong for the part, it's hilarious," LeBlanc says. Written by David Crane, one of the Friends co-writers, and Jeffrey Klarik, who wrote Mad About You, another long-running US sitcom, the show is uncomfortably real in parts, side-splittingly funny in others and will certainly find fans if only because everyone likes mocking Hollywood.

Friends ended in 2004. Of the six main cast members, LeBlanc has been the least visible since, although he did star in a Friends spin-off, Joey, from 2004 to 2006. It lasted two seasons, but its ratings never reached the level that was expected and the series was eventually axed. Those years were dark times for LeBlanc. "I was going through a divorce and the stress of that show not working took its toll on me, it took its toll on my marriage," he relates, with a deep sigh. "My marriage was maybe doomed anyway, I don't know. My daughter was diagnosed with a health problem and we had a nanny who sold the story about my daughter to the papers. It was a very dark period." LeBlanc is on good terms with his ex-wife, Melissa McKnight, these days, and they share equal custody of their daughter, Marina, now six and fully recovered from the seizures that marred her early years.

Although LeBlanc was offered scripts and roles during his five-year hiatus, nothing tempted him. "It wasn't like Scorsese was calling me up," he says. Episodes was different because, by playing Matt LeBlanc, it allowed him to play around with the inescapable fact that everyone still sees him as Joey. "I don't think some people even know my real name," he explains. "People call out ‘Joey' to me on the street all the time. But I take it as a compliment. If people believe that's who I am, it means I've done my job.

"Of course the first thing I said to them was: ‘Did Schwimmer say no?'" The reference to David Schwimmer, his Friends co-star, implies there's still a camaraderie between them. "I had dinner with Schwimmer recently," he confirms. "He got married recently. A real sweetheart." Although he remains friends with all his former co-stars, they don't meet up as a group any more. As time has gone on, they see each other less. But he looks back on his time on the show with an affection and nostalgia that some reserve for their school days. "When I look back it makes me smile. It was just so much fun," he says. "

The amount LeBlanc got paid for Friends also made television history - $1 million per episode. Money that he has used to buy both his parents' homes.

"The way I look at it, everything is a trade. You acquire some money, so then you've got no financial burdens, but everyone wants your money and so who can you trust? Or you've got no money and you can trust anyone, but then you've got the worry to pay bills. Which is worse?

"The grass is always greener and I'm just fine with the greenness of my grass. I've adapted well to it. Enough time has passed. I accept who I am. I never set out to be the biggest, most successful actor in Hollywood. I just wanted to make a living and I've superseded my expectations tenfold.

"I'm also a good dad and a good son. And I'm probably more proud of that than anything else." He pauses again and I wait for the punch-line, his customary tactic to shift matters away from anything too serious. But it never comes. Only the bill, which he insists upon paying.

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