Turns out, David Schwimmer always was Jennifer Aniston’s lobster. In an interview replayed from March 2023—the actor’s strike has prevented actors from promoting new work—Jennifer Aniston, 54, detailed her feelings and first kiss with Schwimmer who played Ross to her Rachel in 90s comedy sitcom Friends.
“You and David in the early years had a crush on each other,” host of Live With Kelly and Mark Kelly Ripa said.
“Yes, we did. We just let it play out on TV,” replied Aniston.
Speaking of their first kiss, which was on-screen at a scene inside Central Perk, Aniston said it was “quite enjoyable” while also “such a bummer” that the moment happened on television.
“Sure enough, the first time we kissed was in that coffee shop,” she said. “So, we just channelled all of our love and adoration for each other into Ross and Rachel.”
As a reminder, here is the scene.
In September of 1994, six twenty-something friends living and working in New York City were introduced to us. Little did we know then, they would become Monday night staples in our living rooms for the next ten years. And while Rachel (Aniston), Monica (Courtney Cox), Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), Ross (Schwimmer), Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc) were indeed fictional characters on a sound stage within the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles, their every-day happenings infiltrated the pop culture conversation like no other show of its era.
During a television reunion special in 2021, Aniston and Schwimmer admitted to having feelings for each other, but never acting on it.
“The first season I had a major crush on Jen,” Schwimmer said. “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. We respected that.”
Schwimmer added they would often “cuddle on the couch” during rehearsal breaks.
“We would spoon and fall asleep on the couch and I kept thinking, ‘how did not everyone know we were crushing on each other?’ It was a situation that we couldn’t do anything about it.”
Cox, Perry, Kudrow, and LeBlanc all jumped in to reveal they did notice what was going on, with Cox, in particular, noting how thankful she is that nothing romantic transpired with her on-screen brother.
“How great though, ultimately, because if you had and it didn’t work out,” Cox noted, “it probably wouldn’t have been as great.”
Aniston dated Tate Donovan and went on to marry Brad Pitt, while Schwimmer famously dated Australian singer Natalie Imbruglia before marrying artist and photographer Zoe Buckman. As both are now singles, rumours of a romance have swirled again, but have never been confirmed.
While we’re here, this does feel like a good time to revisit’s Schwimmer’s most famous scene: the leather pants.
