David Schwimmer learned in an interview that the late Matthew Perry had praised him, which came as a surprise considering that his Friends co-star was “reserved” with him.

Schwimmer was speaking to Cush Jumbo on her podcast Origins when she first mentioned Perry, while recounting their interactions during The Good Fight. 

“I’m recalling talking to him about how I knew you a little bit but not very much at that stage, and I was talking to him about commedia [dell’arte] and about physical comedy and all this stuff,” she said. “I was saying, ‘Is David just someone who just does it? It just comes off of him?’

“He talks about how it’s not out of control at all, that you’re a linchpin person in a scene — that mostly people were always looking to you to know physically what direction things should go in. That without you being the pin, the other things don’t work, which I thought was very, very complimentary and probably very true.”

Schwimmer replied: “That’s interesting for many reasons, to hear that,” he said. “That’s a huge compliment, and I’m surprised to hear it because Matthew was reserved with me, he would not say that to me. But I appreciate that a lot.”

He then elaborated on what Perry had said about him. “Yeah, I am one of the few in the cast who had a rigorous theater training, and so and in this way, in film or in anything that’s involving a stunt or anything physical, I think it’s got to be finely, carefully, choreographed, and I would work and work and work on any physical comedy in a scene.

“I would meticulously structure and choreograph it, not only so that I never hurt myself or hurt anyone else, but that I could repeat it many, many, many, many times, so I think that’s what maybe he was referring to.”

Perry died on October 28 aged 54 due to the acute effects of ketamine. At the time, Schwimmer paid tribute by saying: “Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity.

“I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes.”

in other news, a writer on Friends, Andrew Reich, has said that he would “bring more diversity” to the show if they were making it today.