Lucy Liu admits she once admired her ‘Southland’ co-star C. Thomas Howell

Lucy Liu had a crush on C. Thomas Howell long before they met on the set of Southland.

In an interview with W Magazine, the Charlie’s Angels actress revealed that her first “movie crush” later became one of her co-stars, and that she even had a picture of him on her wall when she was a child.

“C. Thomas Howell from ‘The Outsiders.’ I could afford those teen magazines, so I taped them to the wood-paneled walls of my house,” Liu, 57, told the magazine. “He had a very ’80s look with his hair slicked back and his hands in his jeans pockets.”

Howell was just 16 when he played Ponyboy in 1983’s The Outsiders, alongside Tom Cruise, Diane Lane, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez and Patrick Swayze.

Francis Ford Coppola’s film was set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the 1960s. It depicts the brothers Ponyboy Curtis (Howell), Darrell Curtis (Swayze), and Sodapop Curtis (Lowe) and their friends, as well as the conflict between the Greasers and the city’s wealthier teenagers, Sox.

Decades after the crime thriller was released, Liu “ironically” ended up co-starring with Howell, 59, in season four of Southland.

“I never told him that I was in love with him because I was so embarrassed. We were playing tough cops,” Liu admitted.

Southland ran for five seasons from 2009 to 2013. Howell had a recurring role on the show, appearing in 27 episodes as Officer Dewey Dudek. Meanwhile, Liu joined the show in 2012 and played police officer Jessica Tan in 10 episodes.

The crime drama also starred Michael Cudlitz, Ben McKenzie, Regina King, and Sean Hatosy.