Some fans were critical of Matthew Perry's appearance in the Friends reunion special. Photo / HBO Max
Some fans were critical of Matthew Perry's appearance in the Friends reunion special. Photo / HBO Max
Friends star Matthew Perry has revealed he returned to rehab after filming one of Friends’ most iconic scenes at the “highest point” of his career.
He told the New York Times on Sunday that after his character Chandler Bing married Monica Geller, played by Courteney Cox, in the show’s season 7 finale, he was “driven back to the treatment centre ... in a pick-up truck helmed by a sober technician”, reports the New York Post.
“[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 continued to speak to the outlet about his “exhausting” opioid addiction, which he explores in his upcoming book Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
He said he “would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin [painkillers] that day and figure out how to do it”.
“When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math,” Perry said. “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.”
“There is a hell,” he writes in his memoir. “Don’t let anyone tell you different. I’ve been there; it exists; end of discussion.”
Perry also revealed co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his alcoholism during their time on Friends and that he spent nearly US$9 million ($15m) on trying to get sober.
Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing and Courteney Cox as Monica Geller on their wedding day. Photo / Danny Feld / NBCU Photo Bank
Perry revealed he “nearly died” a few years ago when his colon burst. He had to use a colostomy bag for nine months afterwards, though doctors had given him just a 2 per cent chance of survival.
“My therapist said: ‘The next time you think about taking OxyContin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life,’” he told People last week.
“And a little window opened, and I crawled through it, and I no longer want OxyContin.”
He’s now been clean for 18 months and is open to getting married and having a family as he “thinks he’d be a great father”.
Perry proposed to literary manager Molly Hurwitz in 2020, but she broke off the engagement in 2021.
