Aisha Tyler Recalls What Matthew Perry Told Her Before She Took Her First Bow on “Friends: ”’I Never Forgot That Moment’

“It was just such a sweet, generous thing to say,” she said.

Aisha Tyler is reflecting on her time on Friends more than two decades after she landed a role on the hit NBC sitcom.

The actress, 53, recalled auditioning for the series in 2003 when she was doing stand-up comedy and taking acting classes on iHeartRadio’s And That’s What You REALLY Missed podcast.

“By the time I auditioned for Friends, I had seen every episode of Friends — like every single one,” she revealed. “Which didn’t make me confident. It just made me know, well, I know how to tell a Friends joke. But like, am I gonna do it well?”

She looked back on reading with David Schwimmer — who she called “lovely” — for the part of his character Ross’ girlfriend, Charlie Wheeler, and shared that she found the experience to be “intimidating.”

Related: Aisha Tyler Says Fans Still Call Her the ‘Black Girl from ‘Friends’ ‘ 20 Years Later

When she landed the role, the Ghost Whisperer alum — who became the first Black person to have a recurring role on the comedy — said she was supposed to do four episodes, but she ended up filming nine. Every Friday, she recalled how they shot an entire episode in front of a live audience, which was a new experience for her.

“At the end, it’s very much like theater, you do a curtain call, then everybody bows,” she explained. “You’re waiting in the wings, and they’ll introduce the guest stars, and then they’ll introduce the main cast. So, I would be one of the last people that would go out before the main cast.”

She went on to share a sweet memory from her first episode: “Right before I went out at the end of my first taping, Matthew Perry leaned in and said, ‘Get ready for your life to change.’”

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Thinking back to that interaction with her late costar, Tyler said she hasn’t forgotten his words.

“It was just such a sweet, generous thing to say,” she recalled. “It wasn’t like, ‘Uh-oh.’ He was like, ‘This is exciting. It’s gonna be exciting for you.’ And I never forgot that moment because it really did change my life.”

When Perry died at age 54 in October 2023, nearly 20 years after the two met, Tyler shared a sweet tribute to the late actor. She described him as having “a gentleness and generosity of spirit that was unparalleled.”

“I learned how to tell a joke perfectly just by watching him work. And I will never forget the moment he leaned in, on my first night of taping Friends, to tell me warmly, ‘get ready for your life to change,’ ” she continued. “Rest well, Matthew Perry. Thank you for the kindness and laughter.”

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