Politics
Fillers and botox to yoga — how Friends stars stay looking so young
IT has been nearly two decades since Friends aired its final episode, but you wouldn’t have guessed looking at some of the cast.
Jennifer Aniston, 52, Courteney Cox, 56, Lisa Kudrow, 57, Matt LeBlanc, 53, Matthew Perry, 51, and David Schwimmer, 54, got fans in a spin this week when they released the preview of their one-off reunion special.
While much of the world couldn’t be more excited by their get-together, to be screened in the US on May 27, many pondered how the female actors looked as though they hadn’t aged in the last 17 years.
Could their youthful complexions be the result of a healthy diet and good genes, or is it down to fancy cosmetic treatments and the world’s top surgeons?
In true Friends style, here is The One Where We Reveal Their Beauty Secrets. . .
The cast of Friends look fresh faced in their Nineties heyday[/caption]
‘I’m too afraid to do Botox, fillers or plastic surgery’
IN recent years she has revealed she is too afraid to try plastic surgery, so it may come as a surprise that Lisa Kudrow had a nose job when she was 16.
She said in 2013: “I went from, in my mind, hideous, to not hideous. I did it the summer before going to a new high school so there were plenty of people who wouldn’t know how hideous I looked before. That was a good, good, good change.”
Lisa Kudrow had a nose job when she was 16[/caption]
Lisa, who played Phoebe in the hit Nineties sitcom, has also admitted to losing weight “on purpose” after comparing herself to co-stars Jen and Courteney throughout her time on Friends.
She said: “You see yourself on TV, and it’s that, ‘Oh my god, I’m just a mountain of a girl’. And I’m already bigger than Courteney and Jennifer. [I was] taller, bigger. My bones feel bigger, I just felt like this mountain of a woman next to them.”
But as she has got older, Lisa has developed a healthier relationship with her body.
She said: “I just go, ‘Alright, so what? You’re older, that’s a good thing, why is that a bad thing?’”
At 57, Lisa is the oldest of the cast, but she says she avoids cosmetic surgery in preference of growing old gracefully, Lisa has said: “I’m too afraid to do Botox or filler or plastic surgery. “It doesn’t mean I won’t ever do it, but it all scares me a little too much. I think everyone’s beautiful when they’re smiling. So I try to be happy. Drink in the good stuff.”
‘Getting older has not been the easiest thing’
WHEN it comes to maintaining her looks, Courteney once confessed she is “game for anything” and “very open to trying to prolong the inevitable.”
The actress, who played Monica, admitted to using Botox and fillers.
Courteney Cox has admitted to using Botox and fillers[/caption]
When she appeared on Running Wild with Bear Grylls in 2016, she said: “There’s a pressure to maintain [your looks], not just because of fame, but just being a woman in this business.
“Getting older has not been the easiest thing. I was trying to keep up with getting older, trying to chase that. It’s something you can’t keep up with.”
Courteney, 56, insists all her filler and Botox has dissolved now, and she regrets having it in the first place.
She said in 2017: “I’m as natural as I can be. I feel better. I think that I now look more like the person that I was. I hope I do.”
Explaining why she chose to have cosmetic surgery, she added: “Things are going to change. Everything’s going to drop. I was trying to make it not drop, but that made me look fake. You need movement in your face, especially if you have thin skin like I do. Those aren’t wrinkles — they’re smile lines.”
These days, when it comes to her skin, Courteney goes for non-invasive treatments like Jen. She has said: “I’m a big laser believer. I really think they are the wave of the future.
“I tried Ultherapy, which produces collagen, and I’m about to do Fraxel, which will get rid of brown spots on my chest and face.”
‘Good night’s sleep and water, water, water. It’s so important for that glow’
JENNIFER has long been considered one of Hollywood’s hottest actresses, even being named the World’s Most Beautiful Woman by People magazine in 2016.
The 52-year-old looks as youthful now as she did in 1994, when she crashed through the doors of Central Perk wearing a wedding dress.
Jen, who played Rachel, has never admitted to having Botox or dermal fillers, though once said: “I’m not saying that I haven’t tried it. All that cosmetic stuff looks ridiculous on me.”
She has, however, confirmed she uses non-invasive treatments such as micro-current facials, which she describes as “a little workout for your face”.
The aesthetician places electrically charged pads on the face to stimulate facial muscles, which immediately tightens and tones the skin.
Jennifer believes hydration is a key component for younger-looking skin, drinking three to four 650ml bottles of water a day.
In 2016, she told Vogue: “Because this is the only body we’re given, we need to be really good and mindful of what we eat and how we take care of our skin — getting a good night’s sleep is extremely important, as is hydrating with water, water, water. It’s so important to get that extra glow.”
For this reason she avoids alcohol as much as possible as it “dries up the skin”. For breakfast, after a glass of warm lemon water, Jen enjoys a shake or avocado and eggs.
She said: “I sprinkle a little coconut oil on that. Sometimes, I’ll have puffed millet cereal with a banana or I’ll do oatmeal with an egg-white whipped in.”
When she’s on the go, Jen tries to reach for healthy snacks such as hard-boiled eggs, a cheese stick or a cup of soup, and her favourite lunch is apparently a seared ahi tuna, cucumber and lentil salad.
To keep in shape, yoga is her go-to, but Jennifer has said she “usually does a trifecta,” which involves 15 minutes each of cycling, running and the cross-trainer, to “shake it up”.
‘Men are allowed to look older’
WHILE the women don’t look very different, male Friends stars Matt LeBlanc, 53, David Schwimmer, 54, and Matthew Perry, 51, seem to have matured more naturally.
Some fans took to social media saying this “tells us everything we need to know about how each gender is ‘allowed’ to age in Hollywood.”
The male stars of Friends in their younger days[/caption]
Matthew – Chandler Bing on the sitcom – had a battle with drug and alcohol addictions during his time in the show.
In 2011 he took time out of the spotlight to get well.
Matthew, who has been sober ever since, became a spokesman for drugs charities and lobbied US Congress to support sufferers.
David often cooks veggie meals for his “self-declared vegetarian” daughter Cleo, ten, whose mum is his ex-wife Zoe Buckman, and buys her vegan chicken nuggets.
UPS AND DOWNS
David, who played Ross Geller, said: “When she was four or five, she just said, ‘I’m a vegetarian’.
“I think she had been somewhere with her mum where they were talking about vegetarianism and animal rights and it just hit her.
“Also, I think she just developed a taste for it. She never really enjoyed eggs.”
As well as putting on a few pounds, Matt has allowed himself to go grey with age.
The actor, best known for playing Joey Tribbiani, has spoken openly about his weight gain following the end of the show.
He recalled being snapped by the paparazzi: “I was at a hotel, and I was overweight. I was lying on a chaise, and I thought it was all private.”
“This guy was in the pool and he had a gym bag and a two-year-old son with him. He picks his son out of the water, sits him on the edge of the pool, opens his bag, takes out his camera and fires across the pool at me.
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“It was on the front page of the National Enquirer the next day.
“The headline was ‘Beached Male’. That stung a little. Another said ‘Fat LeBlanc’. That was clever, I thought.”
He added: “It’s part of the ups and downs of Hollywood. So it doesn’t really matter.”
