“We channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel.”
They may not have been each other's “lobsters,” but Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer were crushing on each other while their characters, Rachel Green and Ross Gellar, were getting together.
“The first season I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer revealed in the recent Friends reunion special on HBO Max. This came after host James Corden asked the cast whether there were any romances among them, and Aniston prompted Schwimmer to respond. Then she admitted, “It was reciprocated.”
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“I think at some point we were both crushing hard on each other, but it was like two ships passing because one of us was always in a relationship, and we never crossed that boundary,” Schwimmer explained, saying, “We respected that.” Apparently, their relationship never actually got beyond the friendship stage.
Aniston added, “I remember saying one time to David, ‘It’s gonna be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is going to be on national television,’” referring to their characters' season-two get-together.
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“Sure enough, the first time we kissed was in that coffee shop,” she said. “We just channeled all of our adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel.” You gotta use your feelings for your acting!
Off-camera, they agreed, there were tender moments. Schwimmer admitted, “I thought back on the very first year or two, you know, when we had breaks from rehearsal, there were moments we would cuddle on the couch.”
He then recalled, “I’m thinking, How did everyone not know we were crushing on each other?” But the other four main cast members—Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and Courteney Cox—all said that, actually, they did know. So maybe the acting wasn't so smooth.
Schwimmer said that his and Jennifer Aniston's mutual attraction was "a situation that we couldn’t do anything about,” but seemed to have no regrets. And they'll always have Vegas!
