Matt LeBlanc Says He Only Had $11 in the Bank Before He Got the ‘Friends’ Job — Watch!

Talk about great timing! Matt LeBlanc doesn’t have to worry about money these days, but before the role of Joey Tribbiani came along, he only had a couple of dollars to his name.

The 51-year-old actor appeared on Conan on Thursday, January 31, to talk about just how broke he truly was before he landed the job that would completely change his fortune and life around. “I had, I think, I was down to $11,” the actor said of his bank account before the NBC show. “That’s holding out too long. Because even if I said at that point, ‘Alright, I’m going to go get a waiter job.’ By the time that $11 ran out, it would have been before the first pay check on that job. I would have starved.”

The Golden Globes winner even revealed just how careful he had to be with his money while trying to make it in Hollywood. He recalled the time he attempted to get headshot photos when the photographer brought up an issue.

“He said, ‘Before we take this, you might want to go get that tooth filed.’ I go, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘One tooth is a little longer than the other one. You should go get that filed,’” Matt said, adding that he eventually went to the dentist without insurance and learned of the $80 it was going to cost for the procedure. He refused.

“I go to the drug store and buy a three pack of emory boards. I’m very frugal,” he said. The Man with a Plan star doesn’t have to worry about cash now, especially since he’s reeling in about $22 million a year thanks to the show’s syndication. And that’s quite nice, almost as great as the item that Matt stole from the show when it wrapped up. He recently told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show that he took the Magna Doodle that hung on the door of Joey and Matthew Perry‘s character Chandler.

Although he did give it to someone on the crew. “I stole it and gave it to him, so he’s got it,” Matt said. “So, that’s kind of cool. I could have sold it for a lot more.”