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

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.”

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 m -

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ain 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.’”

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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All 10 seasons of Friends can be streamed on Max.

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