Matthew Perry was on a concoction of pills and alcohol during the majority of the filming of Friends – so much so that he has no recollection of some of the seasons. "I was a little out of it at the time somewhere between seasons three and six," he once said in a BBC Radio Two interview.
But his stellar performance of the legendary character Chandler Bing was a testament to his talented acting, and he kept his painful secret hidden from the millions of fans watching at home. The 54-year-old actor, who was found dead at his Los Angeles home on Saturday, thought he could also manage to keep his addiction concealed from his respected co-stars, but they were later forced to intervene.
In the year leading to his sudden death, Matthew opened up about his mental health struggles and his countless attempts to get sober. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he introduced himself by writing: "Hi, my name is Matthew, although you may know me by another name. My friends call me Matty. And I should be dead."
He had been determined to keep his struggles from the cast and crew, reflecting: "I made a rule that I would never drink or take anything at work. But I would show up blindly hungover." But during the later seasons of Friends, Perry was routinely drunk, prompting an intervention from his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Joey Tribbiani, and David Schwimmer.
Most notably, it was Jennifer, who played Rachel Green, who confronted Perry and warned him that they knew he had a problem, which floored him. He wrote: "'We can smell it,' she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural 'we' hit me like a sledgehammer." From then he was even assigned a 'sober companion' to shadow him on set, but by the time The One With Monica and Chandler's Wedding aired, in May 2001, Perry was living in rehab.
In an interview last year, Perry reflected on the exchange with Jennifer, telling ABC News' Diane Sawyer: "At the time I should have been the toast of the town, I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers and completely alone. [Aniston] was the one that reached out the most." Describing her address as a "scary moment", Perry confessed: "I'm really grateful to her for that."
He also went on to reveal he had been given a two per cent chance of survival after his substance abuse resulted in a burst colon, leaving him fighting for his life in a two-week coma. The actor confirmed he'd had 14 surgeries on his stomach and was forced to live with a colostomy bag for nine months.
Matthew spent more than half of his life trying to get help from his substance abuse in rehab, detoxing more than 65 times, which cost him more than $9m. He started drinking alcohol aged just 14, and by the time of his 21st birthday, his drinking had already spiralled out of control.
Three years into the making of Friends, the star had a jet-ski accident and was prescribed heavy duty painkiller Vicodin. But even after his injuries healed, he found it impossible to stop taking and by series three of Friends, he was taking 55 tablets a day.
Aside from the relatable characters that saw Friends rocket to success, it was the live audience that made the '90s sitcom even more unique, but years later, Perry admitted their reaction – or lack of – only added to his mental health battles. "I felt like I was going to die if the live audience didn't laugh," he said of his dark experience at the Friends reunion show. "And it's not healthy for sure, but I could sometimes say a line and they wouldn't laugh, and I would sweat and just go into convulsions. If I didn't get the laugh I was supposed to get, I would freak out. I felt that every single night. This pressure left me in a bad place."
Ahead of their highly anticipated reunion in 2021, Jennifer told the Today show that at the time of filming, she hadn't understood the immense pressures her co-star felt. She said: "I didn't understand the level of anxiety and self-torture [that] was put on Matthew Perry, if he didn't get that laugh, and the devastation that he felt."
Police sources have indicated that no drugs were found at the scene of Matthew's death and there is no indication of foul play. In his last hours, Perry was reported to have played pickleball – similar to squash – for two hours before returning home to relax. He then sent his personal assistant on an errand, with the staff member returning home to find him unresponsive. The Friends' official Twitter account confirmed news of Perry's death on Saturday night, posting: "We are devastated to learn of Matthew Perry’s passing. He was a true gift to us all. Our heart goes out to his family, loved ones, and all of his fans."
