Matt LeBlanc

The Carpenter Who Had Only Eleven Dollars

Matt LeBlanc arrived at the audition for Friends with exactly eleven dollars in his pocket. It wasn't a poetic figure or an exaggeration for the publicists. It was the real money he had left after years of trying to land TV commercials and small supporting roles in shows nobody remembers.

The son of an office manager and a car mechanic, LeBlanc grew up in Massachusetts handling tools before scripts. He studied carpentry because the construction world seemed more solid than acting. But in 1987 he decided to move to New York to try his luck as a runway model.

Luck was elusive at first, though.

His height didn't fit the fashion standards of the time. So he ended up filming a Heinz ketchup commercial in 1987 that let him pay the rent for a few months. That gave him the push to move to Los Angeles, where he went through a string of flops in shows like TV 101 or Top of the Heap.

In 1994, he signed the contract that radically changed his bank account. Playing Joey Tribbiani gave him a financial security that few actors achieve in their entire professional career. For ten years he played a celebrity-like character powered by a mix of naivete and physical charisma.

In the show's final season, he was earning one million dollars per episode.

The Solo Years Trap

When the sitcom ended in 2004, the rest of the cast sought refuge in film or prestige theater. LeBlanc took the easy route of continuity. NBC released Joey that same year, a spin-off that aimed to stretch the original formula's success without the rest of the main cast.

The failure was total.

The show lasted only two seasons and was canceled in 2006 due to a steep drop in its audience. That professional blow sidelined him for five years. He decided to retire to his ranch in California to spend time with his daughter and step away from the cameras that had chased him for a decade.

Because the mental exhaustion was real. LeBlanc later admitted that during that time he barely left the house and that his barber was the only person he saw outside his immediate family. But in 2011, he received a call from David Crane, one of the creators of Friends, with a risky proposal.

The idea was to star in Episodes, playing a fictionalized, self-centered and somewhat cynical version of himself. In 2012 he won the Golden Globe for this role (a recognition he never received during his peak worldwide fame). The series aired until 2017 and helped him shed his image as an actor typecast in traditional sitcoms.

The Engine and the End of an Era

His passion for cars was never a secret to those who followed his career away from the sets. In 2016, he became the first non-British presenter of Top Gear, the most-watched motoring show on the planet. It was a technical and logistical challenge that required him to travel halfway around the world for three years.

Then he returned to mainstream television.

In 2016, production began on Man with a Plan, a family comedy in which he played a father who has to take care of his kids when his wife goes back to work. The show performed solidly for CBS. But in 2020, the series was canceled after four seasons due to high production costs.

In 2021, he appeared in the Friends: The Reunion special for HBO Max. It wasn't an acting job but an exercise in collective nostalgia, where he was visibly moved alongside his former co-stars. That appearance was one of the most talked about for his relaxed look and the attitude of a seasoned veteran who has nothing left to prove.

His last credited appearance in a scripted production dates to 2020. He now manages his real estate holdings and his collection of high-end vehicles at his property in Santa Barbara. The series Man with a Plan ended its run with a total of 79 episodes produced.