George Clooney (left) and Matthew Perry
George Clooney opened up about his friendship with Matthew Perry and revealed the late actor wasn’t happy starring in one of the most popular series, “Friends.”
In a recent interview with Deadline, Clooney recalled the time his series “ER” was airing next to “Friends,” noting that the show’s cast was close, but he and Perry went back longer.
“I knew Matt when he was mo 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid. He was a kid, and all he would say to us—I mean, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov—was, I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom, and I would be the happiest man on earth,” reminisced the actor.
Clooney weighed in on the fact that Perry got his wish as he landed one of the main roles in the sitcom “Friends,” but noted it wasn’t enough to give the late actor happiness.
“He got on probably one of the best ever. He wasn’t happy. It didn’t bring him joy, happiness, or peace. And watching that go on on the lot—we were at Warner Brothers; we were there right next to each other—it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him. We just knew that he wasn’t happy, and I had no idea he was doing what—12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about—all that heartbreaking stuff. And it also just tells you that success, money, and all those things don’t automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life,” continued Clooney.
In an interview with CBC in 2022, Perry opened up that he never rewatched “Friends” after it aired as it reminded him how deep he was in his addiction.
“I didn’t watch the show and haven’t watched the show because I could go drinking opiates and cocaine. I could tell season by season by how I looked,” Perry stated.
“That’s why I don’t want to watch it, because that’s what I see. I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, and I was on Friends, getting watched by 30 million people—and that’s why I can’t watch the show, ’cause I was brutally thin.”
In one of Perry’s interviews in the past, he also reflected on the fact that his other co-stars didn’t go through the same struggle as he did while they were filming the sitcom.
“It’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t. They got everything that I got. But I had to fight this thing, and I still have to fight this thing. And so, just to end this on a good note, there are people who will help you. And get their help. It doesn’t go away. It never goes away,” opened up Perry.
In his 2022 memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” Perry detailed his experience battling addiction as well as his experience starring in “Friends” and how grateful he was to his co-stars.
Perry died at 54 from acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine, according to the results of an autopsy.