James McAvoy’s first meeting with celeb crush Jennifer Aniston was ‘rough’ — here’s what he said
He didn’t crush their first meeting.
On Wednesday’s episode of “Watch What Happens Live,” James McAvoy, 45, revealed an embarrassing incident from his youth when he met his celeb crush, Jennifer Aniston.
The Scottish actor, who was promoting his new thriller movie “Speak No Evil” (now in theaters), told a story about how he met the “Friends” star at a Hollywood party at the beginning of his career.
“I did meet her and it wasn’t great,” McAvoy told host Andy Cohen.
“Not because she’s not great,” he added.
The “X-Men: First Class” star explained, “I was at a party when I was really young, I was like 22 in LA, and I met Lucy Liu. And Lucy Liu was really, really nice to me and she was like, ‘Come meet my friends.'”
He recalled how the “Charlie’s Angels” star led McAvoy over to a group of people that included Aniston.
“I got parked right beside Jennifer Aniston,” McAvoy said. “And just as [Liu] was like, ‘Hey, guys, meet my new friend James,’ instead of saying that, she got pulled aside by a guy she went to high school with. She went away and I was just left standing with all these people going, ‘Hey, what’s up, I’m new in town.'”
McAvoy said that he then turned to Aniston and said, “So you’re Jennifer Aniston and you’re in ‘Friends.’”
The “Atonement star” confessed, “It was rough. But she was lovely.”
McAvoy isn’t alone. Fellow “Friends” star David Schwimmer has also confessed to having a crush on Aniston at one point, and so did her late co-star, Matthew Perry.
“The first season, I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer revealed during the “Friends: The Reunion” special on Max in May 2021.
“At some point, we were both crushing hard on each other — but it was like two ships passing [in the night] because one of us was always in a relationship.”
In his 2022 memoir, which was released one year before he died at age 54 in October 2023, 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.”
He recalled asking her out and getting turned down, even before “Friends.”
Then, after they were filming, the crush continued.
“Fairly early in the making of ‘Friends’ I realized that I was still crushing badly on Jennifer Aniston,” he wrote.
“Our hellos and goodbyes became awkward. And then I’d ask myself, ‘How long can I look at her? Is three seconds too long?’ ”
Perry continued, “But how can you not have a crush on Jennifer Aniston, you know? But I did at one point just go, ‘All right, that’s enough.’”
