Matthew Perry: It's Unfair My 'Friends' Co-Stars Didn't Struggle With Addiction
By Kelly Coffey-Behrens on November 6, 2023 at 4:20 PM EST
Before his tragic death, Matthew Perry had admitted that he thought it was unfair his 'Friends' co-stars didn't struggle with addiction.
Matthew Perry was best known for his role as Chandler Bing on the famous sitcom where he appeared alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow. Throughout the years, the 54-year-old actor struggled with addiction, something he says is "not fair" that the other five did not have to deal with.
Matthew Perry Says 'Friends' Cast Not Struggling With Addiction Is 'Not Fair'
The 54-year-old actor had struggled with addiction for a long time, including when he was filming the hit television show. After he got clean, he opened up about that time in his life, stating how it wasn't fair that he struggled with addiction while his other cast mates did not.
“You know, the thing that always makes me cry, and I hope that I don’t cry here.. is that it’s not fair,” Perry in an interview at the time. “It’s not, it’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t,” he continued. “They got everything that I got. But I had to fight this thing and still have to fight this thing.”
During the sit-down interview, he got teary-eyed thinking back to that time in his life, but that did not stop him from giving advice to those currently struggling with addiction.
“And so just to end this on a good note, there are people that will help you. And get their help,” he stated at the time. “It doesn’t go away. It never goes away.”
Perry then made it his objective to help anyone who was struggling to get clean.
When Perry released his memoir, he opened up and let down his walls about his addiction.
“[I was] at the height of my highest point in ‘Friends’, the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show,” the actor said when promoting his memoir last year. “When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partyer; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin, and watch a movie. That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”
Perry went on to say he had been clean for 18 months at the time, stating, “I’ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober.”
The actor also admitted that he could not watch the show back due to his addiction. “[I] can’t watch the show because I was brutally thin,” he admitted. “Because I could go drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine. I could tell season by season by how I looked. That’s why I don’t want to watch it because that’s what I see.”
Matthew Perry Tragically Passes Away
As we reported, police responded to a 911 call on October 28 to assist with a possible ‘water rescue’ at Matthew Perry’s Pacific Palisades home. When the first responders arrived, they reportedly found the 54-year-old “Friends” actor in his hot tub, unresponsive.
Perry is believed to have drowned, but an autopsy and toxicology reports will be able to answer more questions about his true cause of death.
