Matthew Perry reveals Salma Hayek’s acting ideas ‘weren’t always helpful’ on the set

Matthew Perry’s forthcoming memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing share details about his first big movie. The actor, who starred in the 1997’s film Fools Rush In, directed by Andy Tennant, said that his co-star Salma Hayek didn’t impress him with her ideas.

Perry said he came up with “some fun strategies to tap into real feelings and to be more of a leading man than a funny sitcom actor.”

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“Salma had tried her best, too — she came into my trailer at the start of the shoot and said, ‘Let’s just spoon a little bit,’” Perry writes. “I did my best Chandler impression — the double-take-and-sardonic- stare thing — and said, ‘Oh, OK ! Let’s just spoon a little bit!’”

According to Perry, the Mexican actress had “very elaborate and lengthy ideas” in some scenes, but “her long-winded ideas weren’t always helpful.”

He writes, “There’s one scene in which I’m professing my love for her. She suggested that we don’t look at each other — rather, we should look out at our future together. After listening to this nonsense for about twenty minutes, I finally said: ‘Listen, Salma,’ I said, ‘I’m telling you I love you in this scene. You look wherever you want, but I’m going to be looking at you.’” Despite their differences, the actor believes the project was “probably my best movie.”