When you think about Friends, it’s pretty hard to imagine anyone else playing one of the six iconic characters. The role of Phoebe Buffay was basically made for Lisa Kudrow (imagining anyone else singing “Smelly Cat” is just absurd). The same goes for the rest of the characters, who were perfectly embodied by the actors playing them. But, as reported by Inquisitr, Matthew Perry almost missed out on playing Chandler Bing because of another acting commitment.

In a 2015 interview on Late Night with Seth Myers, Perry spoke about how he already committed to play a baggage handler in a show called LAX 2194, which took place at the LAX airport in the year 2194. You can watch the full interview below.

The description Perry gives of LAX 2194 sounds like a film major’s fever dream, so it’s a good thing the pilot went nowhere and Perry ultimately chose to audition for a show called Friends Like Us, which later became Friends. Trying to imagine Friends without Chandler’s classic one-liners and sarcastic comments is nearly impossible, and the show certainly would have been different had the role gone to another actor.