“The One About Matthew Perry” is revealing new details about the life and death of the late “Friends” actor. In Mary Robertson’s three-part Netflix documentary, which debuted on Oct. 27, one of Perry’s best friends, Roger Costillo, says production paused on ”Friends” in 2001 while Perry entered rehab.
“They had to shut down production for a while until Matt worked out what he had going on,” Costillo said.
As Perry’s sister Mia Perry Bowick put it, “There was an incredible amount of shame and guilt that came along with that, because he knew how many people were working on these shows, that their livelihood was dependent on it. He hated that he had to do that to people, but he also knew that he had to get well.”
The doc also includes a clip of Perry talking about the rehab experience during a 2002 interview with Larry King. “I needed to focus on nothing but sobriety,” he said. “‘Friends’ producers, I asked them for the most time that they could give me. Not even guaranteeing that I’d be back. They shot around me. The three executive producers are wonderful.”
As fans may remember, Season 6 ended with Chandler proposting to Monica (Courteney Cox), and when Season 7 premiered five months later, Perry was noticeably thinner. He later described in his memoir, “You can track the trajectory of my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season — when I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.”
©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
His sister explained in the doc that during Season 7, he commuted back and forth from rehab in Malibu to the set of ”Friends,” so he could be there for Chandler and Monica’s wedding, which served as the finale.
“Both sides of the family came to the filming to watch them get married. It was a really big deal, because we’re all worried about him. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. To try to navigate relationships while also battling this crippling addiction is, I would say, near impossible,” Bowick said. “So I think the unspoken truth that we all were sitting with in some way or another was, ‘Is this his wedding?’ I was on set, and I remember watching Monica walk down the aisle, and when Matthew said his vows to her, the emotion in his eyes, everything was so real.”
She continued: “He and Courteney had such a lovely relationship, and years working through this thing that there was so clearly actual love there — platonic love, but love. It’s a happy memory, mixed with some sadness.”
In the final episode of “The One About Matthew Perry,” Bowick recalled seeing the “Friends” cast — Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc — at his funeral in 2023.
“At the funeral, we arranged for just the family to have it be open casket for a little while for all of us. The funeral was very small — close friends and family,” she said. “The rest of the ‘Friends’ cast all walked in together. I hadn’t seen them in easily 20 years. Jen Aniston was the first one of them to come up to me and give me a huge hug. But they all did.”
Bowick added, “And then, all five of them walked up to the casket holding hands and stood around him, crying.”
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