LK: They're unnerving, to tell you the truth -- that someone would devote so much time to create what's almost an alter. Obsessions. There's a commercial for a computer or something in which a girl goes on about how much she loves frogs. In her room are a bunch of froggy things, and online she's created these really elaborate Web sites and message boards about frogs. They're celebrating this as a good thing -- using it to sell computers -- but it's about frogs. Frogs! She's not OK! She's really not OK. Obsessions are very strange. A person finds pictures of me that no one else has and it's this big thing. Some of what you see makes you wonder who is out there. Another thing is that you can't rely on some of the conversation out there because some of what is written is intentionally written to incite. Someone writes, "I think Friends sucks," just to get a reaction. And he gets a barrage: "Well, you suck." So it's not a genuine opinion. The truth is, if you really disliked Friends or any other show, you wouldn't participate in conversations about it. You wouldn't be there.
YIL: Perhaps the type of people who follow your career online will change now that you are appearing in movies.
LK: I don't know how those things work.
YIL: How have you chosen the films that you've acted in?
LK: You go for things that you have some connection with. With Romy and Michele, it was my part. I was in the play that the movie is based on, Ladies Room, in one of two minor roles. Some Touchtone Pictures people saw the play and decided that our parts should be turned into a movie.
YIL: With you as one of the stars?
LK: Definitely not. They weren't interested in me or the girl who played it with me, Kristie Meller, a really funny actress. No one knew who we were. Then Friends took off after our first season and they began to consider me for the part of Michele. Unfortunately, because they still didn't think that people would go see someone they didn't know, Kristie isn't in it. For me, all's well that ends well. Mira Sorvino, who plays Romy, is a great actress. It's exciting that she did it.
YIL: How similar is the character to Phoebe?
LK: She's out of it, like Phoebe, but she's a complete idiot. Phoebe's out of it in a different way -- she's just sort of otherwordly. Michele, on the other hand, is just a dumb ass.
YIL: Do you mind being cast in roles as ditzes and airheads?
LK: I might if they weren't very funny and very different.
YIL: Are you anything like Phoebe?
LK: I might if they weren't very funny and very different.
YIL: Are you anything like Phoebe?
LK: I have brought myself into the TV part, to a degree. I notice that there's a lot more of me in Phoebe now, for better or worse.
YIL: What do you and Phoebe share?
LK: Some mannerisms, tone, cadence. It all gets thrown in. My sense of humor. There is a symbiosis between sitcom actors and writers. They see you do stuff, because you're around them a lot, and they start writing with you in mind.
YIL: So the producers of Friends saw you as Phoebe?
LK: In superficial ways, though I don't think I'm that much like her beyond that. It's why I never thought that I was as right for the part -- as right as everybody else in the room with me who were auditioning. They just looked more like her to me. They could have been Phoebe, with flower tattoos, genuinely into crystals and all that stuff.
YIL: And you're not?
LK: Definitely not. So I thought it was obvious that I wasn't right for this part.
YIL: Yet you got the role. Any idea why?
LK: I coped with the audition process better.
YIL: Are any of the things that she's famous for things that you share? Her politics, her vegetarianism?
LK: No. I'm a committed meat-eater, for one thing.
YIL: A folk singer?
LK: No. That to me is just a hilarious joke. I love people who take themselves too seriously with their art.
YIL: So you don't aspire to do songs like "Smelly Cat."
LK: No, though I am interested in music. I haven't done anything with it because I'm really too conscious of those actors who write and record their music and paint and fancy themselves as Renaissance artists.
YIL: A lot has been made about how intelligent you are. Was your nickname really Einstein in school?
LK: In college, one guy calle me that. He just used to say, "You're Einstein. You're a f___ing Einstein."
YIL: Since you grew up with -- and worked with -- a father who was a renowned headache specialist, have you surfed the Net to check out medical sites? Looked up headaches?
LK: I haven't, though I'd be interested in looking. Now that's what's good about the Net -- as a place to search for information. When I worked with my father, I saw how much misinformation is out there.
YIL: Is the story true that Jon Lovitz, a friends of your father, encouraged you in your acting ambitions?
LK: Yes. He really inspired me. It's why I went to try out for the Groundlings, an improv group.
YIL: And you used your humor to get the rest of the way.
LK: Yeah, though it began early, with my family. I kept feeling like I was getting encouragement. Like, "Oh, you're good at this." And it had a profound impact on me. When I began doing improvisation, it turned me from a kind of judgmental, fearful person into a very open and trusting person. That type of person may be less funny than a judgmental, fearful, angry person, but it's an easier person to be.