Matthew Perry beforehand mentioned he didn’t “want Friends to be the first thing that’s mentioned” about him when he died, however reasonably that he wished “to help people” scuffling with dependancy throughout his 2022 interview on the “Q With Tom Power” podcast. On the time, the late American-Canadian actor was selling his memoir, Associates, Lovers and the Large Horrible Factor, which explores his previous relationships, household life and substance abuse.
Matthew Had a ‘2 Percent Chance to Live’ After OxyContin Abuse
Whereas selling his guide, Matthew revealed to PEOPLE the surprising assertion the hospital advised his household when he ruptured his colon after utilizing OxyContin in 2019. “The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live,” he defined. “That’s the time I really came close to my life ending.”
In his guide, the previous Odd Couple actor rehashed his analysis and the next seven-hour surgical procedure. His expertise resulted in a coma that lasted two weeks.
“I will have to live out the rest of my days knowing that my mother and others heard those words,” Matthew wrote, referring to when the docs believed he wouldn’t survive. “I had realized that my greatest fear had come true, which is that I did this to myself.”
On account of his drug abuse, Matthew revealed he had been “in a mental institution, gone to therapy twice a week for thirty years” and had “been to death’s door.”
Why He Nearly Didn’t Play Chandler on ‘Friends’
When casting calls have been despatched out for Associates — initially titled Associates Like Us — Matthew practically didn’t audition attributable to his contract with the present L.A.X 2194.
“I was devastated. When I read the script for Friends Like Us, it was as if someone had followed me around for a year,” the Massachusetts native defined, earlier than including, “I was Chandler.” As soon as L.A.X 2194 wasn’t picked up for a season, Matthew landed his function as Chandler.
His Substance Abuse on the Set of Movies and Reveals
Matthew described how he labored on his 2002 movie, Serving Sara, whereas taking medication and ingesting vodka.
“Every day, I would show up to set, pass out in my chair, wake up to do a scene, stumble to set, then just basically scream into a camera for two minutes,” Matthew wrote. “I needed to make real amends … so, I recorded my slurred parts for the entire movie, which meant I looped the entire movie. Then, I committed to doing the most press possible in the history of press, bending over backward to make things right.”
After he was solid in Associates, Matthew struggled to remain sober throughout his 10 years on the present. In his guide, the 17 Once more actor revealed that the one time he was sober was when he shot season 9 of the comedy sequence. Throughout season 7, Matthew’s character, Chandler, marries Monica (Courteney Cox). In Matthew’s memoir, he remembered going to rehab whereas engaged on these scenes.
“I married Monica and got driven back to the treatment center — at the height of my highest point in Friends, the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show — in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician,” Matthew famous.
Why Matthew Broke Up With Julia Roberts
Although it was a short-lived romance, Matthew had a high-profile relationship with Julia Roberts within the Nineties. They fell in love after Matthew reached out to Julia to seek out out if she would seem in an episode of Associates.
“Three or four times a day, I would sit by my fax machine and watch the piece of paper slowly revealing her next missive,” the Entire 9 Yards actor recalled. “It was like she was placed on this planet to make the world smile, and now, in particular, me.”
Regardless of having fun with a candy relationship along with her, Matthew determined to name issues off with the “biggest movie star in the world” as a result of he felt that he would by no means be “enough” for her.
“I was not enough; I could never be enough; I was broken, bent, unloveable,” he wrote in his memoir. “So, instead of facing the inevitable agony of losing her, I broke up with the beautiful and brilliant Julia Roberts.”
Why He Didn’t Seem in ‘Don’t Look Up’
Matthew wished to land dramatic performing roles after Associates got here to an finish. Although he initially struggled to discover a profitable job, he was approached by filmmaker Adam McKay to painting a journalist within the hit 2020 Netflix movie Don’t Look Up. Nonetheless, Matthew was in a rehab facility in Switzerland battling dependancy and present process surgical procedure.
“Being in Don’t Look Up didn’t work out because my life was on fire, but I learned an important lesson: I was hirable in something big without putting on a show,” Matthew identified in a single excerpt from his guide.
Jennifer Aniston ‘Didn’t Need’ to be in ‘Friends’ Anymore
Matthew claimed that whereas the Associates solid agreed to finish the present, Jennifer was the one who already determined she “didn’t want” to do it anymore.
“The truth was, we were all ready for Friends to be done. For a start, Jennifer Aniston had decided that she didn’t want to do the show anymore, and as we all made decisions as a group, that meant we all had to stop,” he wrote. “Jennifer wanted to do movies; I had been doing movies all that time and had The Whole Ten Yards about to come out, which was sure to be a hit. … Even though it had been the greatest job in the world, the stories of Monica, Chandler, Joey, Ross, Rachel and Phoebe had all pretty much played out by 2004.”
Should you or somebody you recognize is scuffling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Psychological Well being Companies Administration (SAMHSA) Nationwide Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
