Lisa Kudrow Says She Did a 'Double Take' the First Time She Heard Matthew Perry Read for “Friends'” Chandler

"I never, even in a million years, could have envisioned anyone playing the character like that," the actress told Conan O'Brien while on his podcast

Matthew Perry often said Lisa Kudrow was the funniest person he had ever worked with and clearly, that sentiment was mutual.

While on the July 22 episode of Conan O'Brien's podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, the 60-year-old actress took a stroll down memory lane to the first time she heard Perry read for the role of Friends' Chandler Bing.

"I thought that Chandler character, when I read it, I thought, 'Oh, they have a gay character, that's good,' " she joked. "That's all I heard, you know."

It wasn't until they sat down and she saw Perry's interpretation of the sarcastic, over-the-top Chandler opposite her Phoebe Buffay that she understood the actor's genius.

"At the table read, I just did a double take at him [like], 'Oh my god.' I never, even in a million years, could have envisioned anyone playing the character like that. And with his own rhythm and everything. It's his own. Impeccable timing, but also just [hilarious]."

Related: Why Lisa Kudrow Was 'Irritated' by Laughter of Friends Studio Audience: 'They'd Been Laughing Too Long'

Perry's dry humor, which his castmates and audiences adored, also came in quite handy during one of the most difficult shoots of the show: the iconic opening sequence in the fountain.

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"Honest to god, shooting those titles in the fountain was a nightmare. I don't like discomfort ... any kind. I don't like it," Kudrow explained. "And that fountain was cold. It was very late at night and we had done, I think 500 takes of dancing — unmotivated dancing [which is] hard too. It's hard."

"It was so cold, but we had to keep doing it. And they said, 'One more take,' and Matthew said, 'One more? Okay. Can't remember a time I wasn't in a fountain,' " Kudrow said, imitating her late friend's deadpan humor.

Related: Conan O'Brien Recalls Being 'Jealous' After Ex Lisa Kudrow Praised Matthew Perry While Filming Friends

She went on to reveal it was Perry's constant sarcastic jokes that had them "doubled over," laughing hysterically in that opening sequence.

Perry died at the age of 54 in October. "We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew," Kudrow and Friends costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer said in a statement days after his death. "We were more than just cast mates. We are a family."

Earlier in her conversation with O'Brien, Kudrow revealed that she just recently started watching Friends again because she could finally remove herself from the show.

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"I used to not be able to watch it at all. I'd be mildly interested and then I'd see me and say, 'That's enough of that,' " she told O'Brien.

"After Matthew died I could start watching the show again because it wasn't about me. It had to do with him, for some reason. So I have started watching Friends. Not started from season 1, but there are marathons on and I have spent at times, since he died, all day long watching the show."

Kudrow is currently starring in the Apple TV+ series Time Bandits.

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