James McAvoy explains why meeting celebrity crush Jennifer Aniston 'wasn’t great'

James McAvoy admitted the moment he first met his celebrity crush Jennifer Aniston was 'not great' as he recalled his awkward encounter with the Friends star.

It's natural to get flustered when you're chatting to someone you have a crush on, but I imagine the nerves shoot through the roof when that someone just so happens to be a huge celebrity.

Thanks to her role in Friends, Aniston has been a megastar for decades now, so it's hardly surprising that McAvoy was among the millions of people who had a crush on her when he was younger.

The actor, who's now 45-years-old, admitted to his 'childhood crush' in an interview on Watch What Happens Live with host Andy Cohen, who then asked whether he'd ever had the chance to meet Aniston.

McAvoy then went on to recall the awkward encounter, saying: "I did meet her and it wasn't great. Not because she's not great."

It all went down at a party in Los Angeles more than 20 years ago, when McAvoy met Charlie's Angles actor, Lucy Liu.

"Lucy Liu was really, really nice to me and she was like, 'Come meet my friends,'" McAvoy recalled.

McAvoy was only in his 20s when he met Aniston (Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Universal Pictures and Blumhouse)

One of Liu's friends just so happened to be Aniston, and McAvoy remembered being 'parked right beside Jennifer Aniston'.

He continued: "And just as [Liu] was like, 'Hey, guys, meet my new friend James,' instead of saying that, she got pulled aside by a guy 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, who was just 22 at the time, then attempted to establish himself by quite simply stating a fact in Aniston's face, saying: "So you're Jennifer Aniston and you're in Friends."

McAvoy's admission about his comment made Cohen cringe, as given that Aniston obviously already knew she was in Friends, it wasn't the best conversation starter.

McAvoy insisted Aniston was 'lovely' (James Devaney/GC Images)

McAvoy admitted: "It was rough."

Thankfully the actor didn't hold it against McAvoy, who went on to insist Aniston was 'lovely'.

Aniston's fame has obviously only grown since then, with her appearances in titles like Murder Mystery and The Morning Show, but thankfully McAvoy has also made his own way in the industry.

Over the years he's appeared in X-Men movies, M. Night Shyamalan's Split series and IT Chapter Two, and he's now starring in the psychological horror movie Speak No Evil.