Matthew Perry tells in his memoirs Friends, lovers and that so terrible, which will be published in Spain by the publisher Contraluz on November 17, that after filming the moment in which his character, Chandler Bing, marries Monica Geller, played by Courteney Cox, the actor was immediately taken to a rehabilitation center: “I married Monica and they took me back to the center. At the highest point of friends, the highest point of my career, the most iconic moment of the most iconic show. During the decade that friends became one of the most memorable series on television, the private life of its six protagonists crossed over to that of their characters on the small screen, and the actor’s addiction problems became an open secret due to his fame, despite attempts, both by him and his team, to handle them discreetly. Now Perry is publishing an explicit biography in which he discusses his addictions to alcohol and drugs in great detail, and in a recent interview on New York Times He has revealed the figure that his sobriety has cost him: “I have probably spent nine million dollars or so,” he has estimated.
Perry, 53, is aware that most addicts don’t have that economic privilege, but they do have “the gift of anonymity.” The actor regrets that his worst moments have come to light through photographs, chronicles or columns, and even in some cases, have become the subject of ridicule or ridicule. “My case suggests that there is still a huge stigma around addictions, and that we still have to hide”, he has declared to New York Times.
When Matthew Perry started rolling friendsIn September 1994, he was 24 years old. As he recounts in his memoirs, at that time he was beginning to have an incipient problem with alcohol. “I could handle it, more or less. But, at 34, he was already in a lot of trouble,” he admits. During that decade, his physical changes were evident to all who followed the series, in which the actor was a constant source of public ridicule because he lost and gained weight in each season. It was a complex time, where the interpreter was getting everything he had always wanted and, at the same time, he was constantly fighting to maintain his sobriety and not spoil everything.
Perry himself has revealed the important role that his co-stars played until he got sober: on one occasion, actress Jennifer Aniston (who played Rachel Green) appeared in his dressing room and, as he confesses, “in a somewhat strange, but very affectionate,” he told her that the group knew he was drinking again. “We can smell it,” Aniston said. On another occasion, the casting the whole made an intervention in his dressing room. In the words of Lisa Kudrow, who gave life to Phoebe, and who also participates in the report in the American media: “I love Matthew very much. We are a family. Basically, as the theme song for the show said, I’ll always be there for him.”
In September 2018, Matthew Perry almost died. News of his hospitalization, which lasted for several months, leaked to the media, where it was reported that he had undergone surgery due to gastrointestinal perforation. But the reality was different: he had spent two weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital and he had to live glued to a colostomy bag for nine months when his colon burst from excessive opioid use. It was during that period in the hospital that the actor began to write his memoirs: “It was hard to face all that,” he said, “but every time I came across something I didn’t want to share, I thought about the people I would help.” And that kept me going.”
The interpreter knows that his book will end up in the self-help section of most bookstores, but he is also aware of his name and fame and aspires to be able to help others who are going through his situation. The dedication of his memoirs leaves no room for doubt: “For all those out there who are suffering. You know who you are.”
