In the pages of his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry, forever etched in our hearts as the lovable Chandler Bing from the legendary sitcom FRIENDS, unveiled the blinks of his life, both personal and professional, as per a report by Digital Spy. Within this heartfelt narrative, Perry highlighted the emotional odyssey he jumped upon, casting a spotlight on the challenges he faced while sharing the screen with his then-huge crush Jennifer Aniston.
How did the stems brew between Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry?
As per a report by Digital Spy, the story began three years before the Friends sitcom started filming when Perry first crossed paths with Jennifer Aniston. He openly admitted to having a massive crush on her, captivated by her charm and intrigued by the possibility of something more. Perry wrote, "I was immediately taken by her (how could I not be?) and liked her, and I got the sense she was intrigued, too – maybe it was going to be something.”
However, as per what he mentioned in his memoir, his initial excitement was met with a not-so-difficult dilemma, he was offered two jobs on the same day, one of which was the sitcom that would soon become a cultural phenomenon. Perry stated, "Back then I got two jobs in one day – one was Haywire, an America's Funniest Home Videos-type show, and the other was a sitcom. So I called Jennifer and I said, 'You're the first person I wanted to tell this to!'"
What did Matthew Perry reveal about his feelings when Jennifer Aniston turned him down?
As the narrative continued Perry’s memoir, he realized that his enthusiastic approach might have conveyed deeper feelings than he intended as he wrote, "Looking back, it was clear that this made her think I liked her too much or in the wrong kind of way… and I only compounded the error by then asking her out."
When he asked her out, Aniston politely declined, opting instead to remain friends. As a response to it, Matthew wrote, "She declined (which made it very difficult to actually go out with her), but said that she'd love to be friends with me, and I compounded the compound by blurting, 'We can't be friends!'"
In the later half of his memoir, he mentioned that as they jumped in to bring Friends to life together, Perry's lingering affection for Aniston introduced an added dimension of complexity to their interactions. He wrote, "Fairly early in the making of Friends I realized that I was still crushing badly on Jennifer Aniston, Our hellos and goodbyes became awkward. And then I'd ask myself, 'How long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?'"
According to an interview report from Entertainment Tonight in 2022, Perry mentioned that his crush on Aniston eventually dissipated.
