Matthew Perry reveals he was friend-zoned by Jennifer Aniston years before Friends

True Friends fans will recall how despite spending so much time together, Chandler Bing and Rachel Green never actually dated.

And it seems that a romantic relationship was never on the cards for actors Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry in real life either.

Perry, who played Chandler in the hit sitcom has recently revealed that he tried his luck with Rachel’s Aniston years before they worked together, and was ultimately friend-zoned.

Writing about his experience in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry wrote how how he and Aniston actually knew each other before joining the 90s-2000s series together after meeting three years prior through mutual friends.

NBC

He 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.”

Recalling the time he was interested in Aniston on a romantic level, he had just landed a role in a sitcom and immediately called her about it, saying: “You’re the first person I wanted to tell this to."

But it seems that his sweet admission may have given the fellow actor the ick, as Matthew’s ‘bad idea’ caused him to ‘feel ice forming through the phone’.

“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.

Sydney Alford/Alamy Stock Photo

God loves a trier.

“She declined... Which made it very difficult to actually go out with her.

“[She] said that she’d love to be friends with me, and I compounded the compound by blurting, ‘We can’t be friends!’”

Perry said he never got over his attraction to Aniston (I mean, can you blame him?), but was able to continue a professional relationship together.

He said they were ‘able to sail right past the past and focus on the fact that we had both gotten the best job Hollywood had to offer’ with their roles on Friends.

He explained: “Fairly early in the making of Friends I realised 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?

“But that shadow disappeared in the hot glow of the show. (That, and her deafening lack of interest.)”

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