FRIENDS star Matthew Perry had special relationships with all his co-stars throughout his life, including with his former crush Jennifer Aniston.
Perry passed away at the age of 54 on Saturday, October 28, 2023, in an apparent drowning, according to TMZ.
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Over the years, the Friend’s actor was very open about his relationships with his co-stars, particularly as he battled addiction as they filmed the hit sitcom.
Perry’s affection for one co-star in particular started very early on in the show’s run.
He had long admitted to having a crush on Aniston — who played the lovable Rachel Green.
Before the long-running sitcom started filming, Perry said he was “immediately taken” by the actress, according to The Mirror.
However, Aniston reportedly had a “deafening lack of interest,” in return.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit show, attempted to impress Aniston and later went on to ask her on a date.
However, she declined his offer and suggested just being friends while they worked together.
Perry went on to explain this moment in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible thing, saying “It was clear that this made her think I liked her too much, or in the wrong kind of way.”
He claimed that after she suggested being friends, Perry said they
can’t be friends.”
For a time, the actor said it was awkward working on the same set with Aniston as he started to overthink his interactions with his crush.
“Fairly early in the making of Friends I realized that I was still crushing badly on Jennifer Aniston,” Perry wrote in the memoir, according to an excerpt from DigitalSpy.
“Our hellos and goodbyes became awkward. And then I’d ask myself, ‘How long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?'”
Read Related Also: How ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry cheated death many times over the years
However, as the group of actors shot into stardom and Aniston began to date Hollywood’s Brad Pitt, their friendship became stronger.
Years into filming, that friendship proved to be extremely important for the young actor.
In his memoir, Perry detailed his battle with painkillers and alcohol as he worked on the Friends set.
By early 2000, the actor said he was “taking so many pills that I couldn’t leave my bedroom.”
However, Perry revealed he believed he could hid the bad habits, as he was still able to show up to work and remember his lines.
But that didn’t stop his friend Aniston from calling him out.
Perry said she came to his Friends trailer and said one simple sentence, “I know you’re drinking.”
“I had long since gotten over her — ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine — and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating,” Perry wrote.
“And I was confused.”
He told his co-star that he had been trying to hide it, but she revealed those efforts were for not.
“‘We can smell it,’ she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer,” Perry said.
Perry later said he was extremely grateful for Aniston throughout that tumultuous period.
As he checked himself into rehab and continued on the long path to sobriety, Perry said Aniston would check on him.
“She was the one that reached out the most,” he said to Diane Sawyer in an October 2022 interview.
“You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
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