The actor opens up about the crush he had on his co-star.
The one where Matthew Perry tries to hide his crush! In a clip from his upcoming interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC News, the actor discussed his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. During a portion of the conversation, the chat turned to the actor’s career-defining role as Chandler Bing on Friends and the crush he had on his co-stars. More specifically, Jennifer Aniston.
Perry told Sawyer that the pair had met prior to filming the show. He recalled asking Aniston out on a date, and she turned him down and suggested that they just be friends. However, that didn’t stop him from admiring her on set.
"'I was like, 'Is three seconds too long?'" he said about the moments he would have on set with Aniston. "And then I write in the gratitude part about her letting me do that."
Sawyer added that the actor had "serial" crushes on the show’s other female leads.
"How can you not have a crush on Jenny, and Courtney (Cox) and Lisa (Kudrow)?" he said. "So it made it kinda difficult to go to work, because I had to pretend I didn’t have these [crushes]."
Perry noted that he cherished his time on the television series so much, that he didn’t let his addiction to alcohol get in the way.
"Early on yes, and I made a rule that I would never drink or take anything at work," he said about struggling with addiction during his time on Friends. "So I would never do that, but I would show up blindly hungover. Like shaking."
Perry added, "I loved Chandler, I loved the show. And I knew 'remember this, because it’s going to be the best time of your life.' And I knew I would never forgive myself if I messed this up."
In his book, Perry documents his time with Aniston on set. He also reveals that it was the actress who confronted him in his Friends dressing room,saying, "We know you're drinking."
Friends, Lovers and the Very Big Thing also offers a chance for Perry to recount his relationships with other notable women. In the book, Perry writes about his brief romance with Julia Roberts -- who appeared as a guest on the series -- and how he ended it because it became “too much.”
"Two months later, I was single," Perry writes in an excerpt shared by The London Times. "Dating Julia Roberts had been too much for me. I had been constantly certain that she was going to break up with me. Why would she not? I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unlovable."
Perry also recounts falling in love with his Sydney co-star, Valerie Bertinelli, while she was married to Eddie Van Halen. In his book, Perry claims that he and Bertinelli had a long makeout session while her husband was passed out in another room.
RELATED CONTENT:
