E.G. Daily voiced the character Tommy Pickles on Rugrats, but he also had a memorable role on Friends as Phoebe’s (Lisa Kudrow) former singer friend and friend-turned-enemy Leslie, in an episode titled The One with Phoebe’s Ex-Partner.
In the episode, Leslie, a failed jingle writer, plays at Central Perk – a classic Friends hangout spot – and recognizes her former partner Phoebe in the crowd. Despite Phoebe’s protests, Leslie convinces her that they would make a great singing duo.
However, their stint is over before it even begins! When Phoebe teaches her the iconic Smelly Cat song, Leslie suggests performing it as a jingle; despite Phoebe’s reluctance, she sells their song and ruins their friendship again.
In an interview with People, Daly recalled it as a light-hearted episode, but it was a rollercoaster experience for her from the audition to the shoot. The 62-year-old actress recalled that when she was called for the audition, her child had just been born.
Daly said, “I got a call from my agent saying, ‘Can you go down to Warner Bros. and do this late-night audition?’ It was about eight o’clock.” Since the call was short-lived, she didn’t have time to hire a babysitter, so she did exactly what any busy mom would do.
“I put the baby in a little bassinet in a car seat and I had a guitar in the other hand and I went to the lot,” she recalled. Daly put the baby in the car seat, played the guitar and sang a few songs, and he said, “You did it.”
When she showed up for shooting the next day, she was thrown into this huge operation called Friends. “In Friends it was a pretty big machine, so you’re suddenly thrown into it. The actress, who voices Buttercup in The Powerpuff Girls, revealed that she had to pull herself together and focus because there was so much to remember, including her lines, blocking, singing and playing the songs.
She added, “There was a lot of work I didn’t really have time for. I just had to focus.” Daly also admitted that she is proud of the work she did on the show. The actress has continued to do voice work and has even earned a large number of followers on TikTok. She is the mother of two daughters, Hunter Daly, 28, and Tyson Daly Salomon, 25.