Brooke Shields Reveals the Stunt She Did to Make Matthew Perry Laugh onFriends: 'I Had Rug Burns All Over My Knees!'

Mar. 15, 2025

Brooke Shields with Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc on a 1996 episode of ‘Friends’.Photo:NBC

NBC

Brooke Shieldshad a secret to makingMatthew Perrylaugh during her guest appearance onFriends.

The actress, 59, revealed on the Jan. 13 episode ofThe Viewthat she wanted to impress the cast of the long-running sitcom and feel like part of the group.

“When you go onto a show that’s so well-oiled and so successful and I was such a fan, all I wanted was for them to like me,” Shields said on the talk show. “I just wanted to be funny, but I wasn’t in the group. They were very tight and had all these inside jokes.”

Brooke Shields and Matthew Perry.Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic

Dia Dipasupil/Getty; Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic

Describing his recurring joke with the cast, she said Perry “would run and throw himself on the floor in front of a girl and pretend to look up her skirt.”

Shields cautioned that the stunt couldn’t be replicated today as “you’d get canceled.”

But, in that moment, the actress decided to give Perry a taste of his own medicine.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, I know what I’m going to do.’ I ran so fast from one end of the stage all the way to the other, threw myself on the ground and pretended to look up his pant leg, and everybody was quiet,” the actress explained. “I’m on the floor and I’m like, ‘I just suck … I look like a crazy person.’ I’m on the floor for what felt like an hour. It was probably one second and all of a sudden he started laughing, and they all started laughing.”

Eventually, she recalled Perry asking her, “How did you know to do that?” to which she replied, “I have just been watching you. I just wanted to say thank you for giving us such humor.”

Shields said the moment was “really sweet,” but left her with a few minor injuries. “The rug burns,” she recalled, “I had rug burns all over my knees!”

Brooke Shields in 2024.Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Shields guest-starred in a 1996 episode of the comedy show titled “The One After the Super Bowl,” in which she played a stalker who believes Joey is actually the soap opera character he plays on television. The episode also featuredJulia Roberts,Jean-Claude Van Damme,Fred WillardandDan Castellaneta.

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Shields' talk show appearance was timed to the release of her new bookBrooke Shields Is Not Allowed To Get Old, set to hit the shelves on Jan. 14. In it, the star offers “an intimate and empowering exploration of aging that flips the script on the idea of what it means for a woman to grow older,” per the synopsis.

On the same day, Shields appeared onGood Morning Americaand opened up about herdecision to address women’s experiencein the healthcare system in the forthcoming memoir.

“Women go through stuff. We need to be able to say, ‘This isn’t fair.’ We need to be able to self-advocate,” she said. “I had a seizure not too long ago and the two male doctors said, ‘Are you restricting yourself for dietary reasons?’ And I was like, ‘No. I’m a 59-year-old woman who looks younger bloated. Give me some potato chips!’ You wouldn’t say that to a man.”

source: people.com