Of all the six main cast members of Friends, Matt LeBlanc may have had the strangest post-Friends career because he’s basically been using that same character since the show ended. He followed Friends with two seasons of the unsuccessful Joey sitcom, and then, following a voluntary seclusion, he returned with four seasons (so far) of Showtime’s Episodes, in which he plays an exaggerated version of himself, i.e., a washed-up actor best known for playing Joey on Friends.
Despite his television show, however, LeBlanc leads a quiet public life these days, so there’s stuff many of us don’t know about LeBlanc since his days on Friends.
For instance, unlike the other Friends characters, he has no interest in distancing himself from his Friends past. “I never wanted to run from Joey. I’m proud of him, not ashamed,” LeBlanc says. And he’s not kidding, either. If nothing else comes along because he’s been so typecast as the character, LeBlanc — who is reportedly worth $60 million — doesn’t seem to care, as he tells The Telegraph. “It just doesn’t sound like fun to me. If nothing else comes along for me, so be it. I’ve had my fair share of success.”
Much of his character on Episodes is based on a heightened version of his real life. A recent plotline saw LeBlanc caught for driving under the influence, which has happened twice to LeBlanc in real life, he says. Once when he was young, although the press somehow never got their hands on the mugshots, he says.
His character is also very good with the ladies, which was once also true of LeBlanc, who — yes — has used “How you doin’?” as a pick-up line in real-life on more than one occasion. These days, however, he’s been in an off-and-on eight year relationship with his Joey co-star Andrea Anders, the amazingly funny actress from Better Off Ted and Mr. Sunshine, Matthew Perry’s sitcom. She may or may not be part of the reason that he ended up divorcing his wife back in the mid-2000s.
His marriage had also been strained by their daughter’s condition. She had dysplasia, a condition that resulted in eight months of seizures, although the condition ultimately corrected itself. He’s not likely to get married again, however, and he doesn’t want to end up like his father (married nine or ten times), who LeBlanc no longer speaks to.
Interestingly, after Joey failed, he mostly secluded himself away in his Santa Barbara ranch to get away from the character. To ensure he didn’t go out in public, he even gave himself a mohawk so he wouldn’t be tempted to leave. With the exception of his work on Episodes, his ranch is still where LeBlanc spends most of his life, drinking beers, tending to his cattle, “bulldozing sh*t” with his bulldozer, and futzing around with his collection of cars and superbikes (of which he has over 100).
Does he still see his Friends castmates? Yes, frequently, though all six of them haven’t been in the same room together since taping the Friends finale.
Source: The Telegraphy
