Friends star Lisa Kudrow initially wanted to play Rachel

Speaking during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Kudrow said when she first read the scripts she hoped that she would be auditioning for the role of Rachel – who, of course, went on to be played by Jennifer Aniston.

"When I first read the script, and I was going to be auditioning for Phoebe, I saw [the pages for] Rachel, and I just went, 'Oh, that's like a Long Island JAP – that could be hilarious, I can identify with that more.'" she said. "But they said, 'No, no. Phoebe.'"

And Kudrow's affinity with Rachel has clearly remained – the actor said she recently completed an online quiz to determine which Friends character she was and was unexpectedly informed that she was a Rachel.

"I thought I was answering questions that would bring me to Phoebe – you know, 'Favorite coloru? Yellow!'" she said. "And it said Rachel!"

Kudrow recently reunited with her former costars for the upcoming Friends reunion special, which will be broadcast on HBO Max on 29th May, and she said the taping of the one-off programme was "thrilling and a little emotional".

"They rebuilt all the sets," she said. "So I think we were meant to be excited about seeing the sets, and everyone was but me, because I wanted to see the people!"

The first trailer for the special was released on Wednesday 19th May and sees the main stars reminiscing about their time together on the show, while also including appearances from frequent guest stars such as Tom Selleck (Monica’s boyfriend Richard) and Maggie Wheeler (Chandler’s on-off girlfriend Janice).

Friends: The Reunion will air on HBO Max in America, but we’re still waiting for details on a UK broadcaster. Every episode of Friends is currently available on Netflix. To find out what else is on telly, check out our TV Guide.