Friends star Matthew Perry shares ‘exhausting’ addiction story

Actor Matthew Perry “never realised” that there was a dark side to fame. Photo / FilmMagic

Matthew Perry “never realised” that there was a dark side to fame.

The 53-year-old actor became a household name when he was cast in the NBC sitcom Friends alongside Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, and David Schimmer in 1994 but in later years struggled with addiction and admitted that he ended up using alcohol as a mechanism for “hope”, even after “working hard” to achieve his dreams.

Perry struggled with addiction and admitted that he ended up using alcohol as a mechanism for “hope”, even after “working hard” to achieve his dreams.

He told Sorted magazine: “‘Be careful what you wish for,” is a phrase that’s often aimed at me. Of course, my dreams were no different to those of billions of other kids out there, and I worked hard to realise them.

“I just didn’t ever realise there was a whole other side to life and to the realities of the world; and if I thought my struggles to make a name for myself were something, then they were nothing compared to the aftermath of actually finding fame.

”I was never afraid to be different in terms of how I dressed or the music I listened to or what I did with my spare time, because there is something cool in that, as a kid, and it’s free choice. I think when it’s familial then there is a different perception.

“It’s involuntary, and perhaps the tag of blended families back then was very different to what it is now and the acceptance that is carried with the subject.

The 53-year-old actor became a household name when he was cast in the NBC sitcom Friends. Photo / Michelle Groskopf

“For whatever reason, it did feel different back then. When I drank with friends, it switched me off from the challenges and the troubles. It blurred the hard lines and gave me energy, hope and belief... for a while at least.

Matthew went on to describe addiction as “exhausting” but noted that finding God and embracing religion was the reason he was able to achieve sobriety. He added: “When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math. I go to this place, and I need to take three. And then I go to this place, and I’m going to take five because I’m going to be there longer.

”It’s exhausting but you have to do it, or you get very, very sick. I wasn’t doing it to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partier; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven for me.

”For me, God showed me a route not just to sobriety, but to truth, and for someone who had kidded and conned himself for so many decades, truth, to me, became — and will always now be — the most amazing gift you can give not just to other people, but yourself too.”