Despite their ample supportiveness, Matthew Perry’s addiction struggles created an inadvertent wedge with his “Friends” co-stars. At November 2022’s GQ’s Men of the Year party, Perry mused wistfully to Access Hollywood, “We don’t see each other as much. I wish the group would see each other more times.” Of course, busy schedules were to blame, too — given his, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Courteney Cox’s divergent careers during his life. In his various attempts to recover from substance abuse, including during his “Friends” tenure, Perry’s cast mates were, as he told People, “understanding, and they were patient.” However, the individual actors weren’t capable of helping their friend directly.
Kudrow, who penned the foreword to Perry’s 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” wrote that she wondered if she did everything she could. “Over those years I didn’t really try to intervene or confront him, because the little I knew about addiction was that his sobriety was out of my hands,” Kudrow confessed in the foreword. “And yet, I would have periods of wondering if I was wrong for not doing more, doing something.”
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“Friends,” to Perry, also served as a constant reminder of his worst periods of addiction. In a 2022 interview on “Q with Tom Power,” the “17 Again” star explained, “I didn’t watch the show and haven’t watched the show because I could go ‘drinking, opiates, drinking cocaine.’ …I could tell season-by-season how I looked.”
If you or anyone you know is struggling with addiction issues, help is available. Visit the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration website or contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
