James McAvoy on Meeting His Celeb Crush Jennifer Aniston

It was a moment so many young actors dream of happening upon their arrival in Hollywood. But for James McAvoy, meeting his celebrity crush was more the stuff of nightmares.

On Wednesday’s episode of Watch What Happens Live, the Scottish actor revealed the details of his embarrassing first encounter with Friends star Jennifer Aniston, more than two decades prior.

“It wasn’t great,” McAvoy, 45, told host Andy Cohen. “Not because she’s not great,” he added.

The meeting happened when McAvoy was 22, at the beginning of his career, and at a party in Los Angeles. He had just met actress Lucy Liu, who was “really, really nice.” ““Come meet my friends,’” Liu said.

“There was a big circle of her friends and one of them happened to be Jennifer Aniston,” McAvoy recalled. “And I got parked right next to Jennifer Aniston.”

But right when Liu was about to introduce him to the group, she was approached by someone she went to high school with. “She went away and I was just left standing with all these people going, ‘Hey, what’s up, I’m new in town,’” McAvoy said.

He then turned to Aniston and said, “So you’re Jennifer Aniston and you’re on Friends.”

On Watch What Happens Live, Cohen and his other guest, actress Edie Falco, responded to McAvoy’s awkward story with loud groans as McAvoy spun around in his chair to demonstrate his embarrassment.

“It was rough,” McAvoy said. “But she was lovely.”