Matthew Perry Talks Salma Hayek’s Unhelpful Acting Tips After Keanu Reeves Controversy

Matthew Perry is sharing yet another celebrity anecdote in his upcoming memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – this time about Salma Hayek. The Friends alum recalled his experience making his first big movie alongside the actress as they co-starred in the 1997 rom-com Fools Rush In.

Perry remembered coming up with “some fun strategies to tap into real feelings and to be more of a leading man than a funny sitcom actor” for the film but admitted Hayek’s ideas for getting into the role didn’t exactly resonate with him. “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 in an excerpt published by Entertainment Weekly. “I did my best Chandler impression – the double-take-and-sardonic- stare thing – and said, ‘Oh, OK! Let’s just spoon a little bit!’”

Perry continues that Hayek always presented a “very elaborate and lengthy idea” about how to handle the scene they were filming, but “her long-winded ideas weren’t always helpful.” He remembers, “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.’”

Perry’s memoir, which is out Nov. 1, has been making headlines over the past few weeks, including a controversial passage in which he seemingly dissed Keanu Reeves while discussing his friendship with the late actor River Phoenix. “River was a beautiful man, inside and out – too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,” Perry writes. “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” The Three to Tango actor has since clarified his statement, telling PEOPLE, “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”