For The Comeback newcomer Julian Stern, landing his first television role meant stepping into one of TV’s most meta worlds — and doing it opposite his real-life mom, Lisa Kudrow.
But long before he was sharing scenes with Valerie Cherish, he was just a kid eyeing one very specific piece of hardware in the house.
“Let me tell you something,” Stern says with a laugh. “It’s on the second shelf. … I couldn’t reach it, but I would try to because it looked like the coolest action figure I had ever seen.”
That would be the Emmy Kudrow won for playing Phoebe Buffay on Friends — which, in Stern’s childhood imagination, wasn’t a prestigious industry award so much as the ultimate toy.
“I would have the Emmy come in as some sort of elder God,” he adds, recalling how he’d stage battles between his mom’s Friends bobbleheads — some of which didn’t survive. Phoebe was his favorite, though not for sentimental reasons. “She had a guitar,” he says, “so I could use it as a weapon.”
That sense of humor carries into Stern’s debut role as Evan, a nervous tech employee overseeing the AI system powering Valerie’s new sitcom in Season 3, beginning with the April 12 episode, “Valerie Does It All.” It’s a character defined by anxiety — something Stern didn’t have to manufacture.
“I’m terrified to be here,” he admits. “This is the biggest job I’ve ever done … and my nerves worked perfectly for that character.”
In fact, Stern says many of Evan’s habits are simply an extension of himself. “A lot of those quirks unfortunately are just me,” he says, noting he was encouraged on set to push the character’s anxiety even further.
Still, stepping onto The Comeback set — a show that skewers the absurdities of Hollywood while often mirroring them — proved eye-opening.
“Sometimes you look at something and go, ‘That’s ridiculous, people don’t act like that,’” he explains. “And then you actually step into a table read or a set and you realize, ‘Oh yeah, people are actually that crazy.’”
Despite the pressure of a first role, Stern found comfort in one key dynamic: once the cameras were rolling, Kudrow wasn’t “mom” anymore.
“As soon as we go into the scene, she locks in,” he says. “This is not the person that raised me … this is a completely different person. So it was actually really easy.”
The role of Evan also dropped Stern into one of the show’s most timely storylines: the growing presence of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry. To prepare, he dove into research — and came away with a surprisingly grounded perspective.
“I’ve worked a little bit with AI … I know how it works,” he says. “It’s not a replacement, it’s more of a tool.”
That understanding helped shape Evan’s mindset — a character caught between fear and control.
“He knows how to control this thing that’s supposed to replace writers and actors,” Stern explains. “It’s kind of stupid … half the time it’s going to produce the wrong thing.”
Even so, the broader conversation intrigued him.
“It’s a scary topic,” he says. “But I do want to be a part of that conversation — what it can do, and more importantly, what it can’t do.”
Off-screen, Stern is still figuring out his own creative path. Though he initially leaned toward writing and directing, acting has opened unexpected doors.
“It actually made me a better person,” he says. “You learn how to listen, how to be empathetic … you can’t just be a character, you have to be a human being.”
Growing up as the son of a television icon came with its own complexities. At times, he admits, he worried about living in Kudrow’s shadow — but his perspective has shifted. “I’m probably going to be in that shadow for a while,” he says. “But I also get to choose what I want to do. I’m not my mother — she’s a completely separate person.”
And on The Comeback, he found himself surrounded by a cast that understood exactly what this moment meant — especially with the show’s long-awaited return. “They know this is the last time they’re going to do this,” Stern says. “So they let loose. It was hardworking, but fun.”
That included working alongside sitcom legend Jim Burrows, an experience Stern still can’t quite believe.
“Come on,” he says, grinning. “That was a dream come true.”
As for what’s next, Stern is keeping his options open — pursuing on-screen roles, voiceover work, and creative collaborations wherever he can find them.
“I want to work,” he says simply. “I want to perform … as long as I’m doing a good job at it.”
For now, Stern is focused on building something of his own — beyond the shadow of that Emmy on the shelf.
