Lisa Kudrow says Friends fan Sandra Bullock accidentally called her ‘Phoebe’ at a party once

Friends fandom can be so intense that occasionally viewers have trouble differentiating the cast from their characters — even famous fans like Sandra Bullock.

In a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host Anthony AndersonFriends star Lisa Kudrow recalled an amusing incident in which Bullock confused her with her TV alter ego.

“I just love this. I was at a big party and I was talking to Sandra Bullock — name-dropping, I have to, but it’s true,” Kudrow said. “And we were talking, and she was like, ‘Well, I guess you’ll just have to talk to yourself, Phoebe,’ about something, and she called me ‘Phoebe.'”

The revelation raises thought-provoking questions: Which other actors has Bullock misidentified as their characters? Did she call Tom Hanks “Forrest Gump” on the set of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? Did William Shatner politely ignore her as she referred to him as “Captain Kirk” on Miss Congeniality? Was she jazzed to hang out with Queen ElizabethCatwomanMarcia Clark, and Kelly Kapoor on Ocean’s 8?

We kid. And in any case, Kudrow made such questions irrelevant as she continued her story, noting that the While You Were Sleeping actress noticed her gaffe and was immediately embarrassed. “She caught herself, she went ‘What’d I just do?'” Kudrow said.

The Comeback actress also reflected on her emotional state after Friends ended its 10-year run in 2004. “Apparently I was crying in the kitchen and my son was 5, and he wanted to know why I was crying, and my husband said, ‘Well, she’s sad because Friends is done.'”

That sentence didn’t make much sense to a kid with no knowledge of NBC’s Thursday-night lineup, though. “[My son] said, ‘But she can see her friends, she can just call them!’ I had no clue he never knew what the show was called. He just knew that I worked on a show.”

Kudrow also noted that she only began watching Friends recently. “I do now, but I didn’t forever,” she said. “I couldn’t watch myself at all. Also, even if I wanted to, the embarrassment of somebody walking into the room…”

Watch the full conversation between Kudrow and Anderson above.

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