Fifteen years after “Friends,” she is returning to TV in Apple’s “The Morning Show” as a news anchor dealing with ageism, sexism and her co-host’s misconduct.

We were sitting in the kitchen of her sunny, midcentury Bel-Air home, on a Tuesday afternoon in late August. She was warm and radiant, which is how glossy magazines often describe her, and also thoughtful, inquisitive and self-deprecating, which is not.

But about that age thing: “I’m entering into what I feel is one of the most creatively fulfilling periods of my life,” she said. “Seriously,” she continued, pausing to knock on her wooden coffee table. “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and I feel like it’s just about to really bloom.”This is the kind of thing actors say all the time in interviews. But in this case, it feels like more than a platitude.

It’s a role that is asking her to draw on more of her personal life than ever before. And it may also be her best chance to finally get the world to see her as an actor, not just a star.