Paul Rudd thought he would just be a "prop" when he landed a role in Friends.

The actor played Mike Hannigan, who went on to marry Lisa Kudrow's kooky character Phoebe. Paul had no idea how long he would be involved in the popular US TV show, but was thrilled to work with his close friend Jennifer Aniston.

"[That time] I was just like, Well, I'm going to stand in the background here. I'm a prop on this show,' but it was an exciting thing just to be in Central Perk," he told the April edition of UK magazine Glamour. "But one thing that made showing up for those episodes many more than I anticipated was that I was friends with Jen already. This time round, even though we'd kept in touch, we hadn't seen much of each other. But there was a 20-year history, so it made working more fun."

Paul and Jennifer have been friends since before they found fame. They previously worked together on the 1998 movie The Object of my Affection and recently teamed up again for the romantic comedy Wanderlust. Paul, 42, highly values his friendship with Jennifer and is pleased they have remained close.

"I've known her for 20 years. When we first worked together, we had conversations going, Oh my God! We're actually working together,' because when we became friends we were both struggling and hadn't done much of anything," he explained.