Perry has suffered 14 surgeries and 15 rehab stays as a result of his addiction.
In his upcoming memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” Matthew Perry, who is best known for playing the snarky Chandler Bing on “Friends,” lifts the lid on his three-decade addiction struggles.
During “Friends,” Perry’s addiction was with him, but in an exclusive interview with People, he claims the cast members were a ray of hope for him at his darkest moments.
“They showed patience and understanding. You may say that (performing the show) saved me,” he told the magazine before the publication of the book.
Perry, now 53, was 24 when he was cast as Chandler, a character he would keep for the duration of the show’s ten-year run, which ended in 2004. His alcoholism was only beginning when he was offered the role, but that was only the beginning of his problems.
“If you compare my weight from season to season, you’ll notice that I drink more when I’m chubby and take more medications when I’m lean. In his autobiography, which will be released on November 1, he adds, “When I have a goatee, it’s lots of drugs.
He admitted to People that at first, he was in control of his addiction.
By the time I was 34, I was really buried in a lot of difficulties, he claimed, adding that he had gotten to the point where he was taking 55 Vicodin each day and weighing 128 pounds.
Perry has suffered 14 surgeries and 15 rehab stays as a result of his addiction. He once experienced a colon rupture and visited the hospital.
“The doctors informed my family that I only had a 2% chance of living. I honestly thought my life was going to end at that point, he claimed.
Perry talked openly about the pressure he felt to perform on the show at the “Friends” reunion in 2021.
He claimed that he believed he would pass away if they didn’t laugh.
I would flip out if I didn’t get the chuckle I intended to get, he said.
Additionally, he has disclosed how his addiction impacted his tenure on “Friends.”
On “The Chris Evans Breakfast Show” on BBC Radio 2, he stated in 2016: “I don’t recall three years of it.”
I was a little out of it, yeah, for a short while, he continued.
According to Perry, writing about his experiences in a memoir may be able to assist others who require it.
He remarked, “My aim is that people would relate to it and realize that this sickness affects everyone.” “The sickness doesn’t care whether you’re successful or not,”
RELATED:-In a new memoir, Matthew Perry expresses regret for disparaging Keanu Reeves.
Matthew Perry has issued an apology for raising the subject of why Keanu Reeves “walks among us” in his new memoir.
Actually, I like Keanu a lot. My error: I just picked a name at random. The “Friends” alum issued an apology in a statement to People on Wednesday.
I ought to have used my real name.
Perry implies that he has resentment towards the “John Wick” star in “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” but he doesn’t explain why.
He asks, “Why is it that the original minds like Heath Ledger and River Phoenix pass away, yet Keanu Reeves still lives among us?”
The troubled 53-year-old actor collaborated with Reeves’ closest friend, Phoenix, on his debut film, “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” in 1988. They grew close while filming, which made the tragic death of Phoenix from a heroin overdose in 1993 at the age of 23 all the more tragic.
In his book, published Nov. 1, Perry writes, “River was a gorgeous man inside and out – too wonderful for this world, it turned out.” “The guys that fall tend to always be the truly talented guys.”
The “Whole Nine Yards” actor mentions Reeves, 58, once again when talking about the 1997 passing of Chris Farley, a friend he made while working together on the 1988 comedy “Almost Heroes.”
When I learned, I “punched a hole through the wall of Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room,” he claims. “Keanu Reeves is here with us.”
Perry’s criticism of the “Speed” star sparked online discussion, with stars like Lynda Carter defending Reeves on Twitter.
“Go ahead… Like one of those frozen cakes, Keanu Reeves is. Nobody dislikes him,” the 71-year-old “Wonder Woman” actor tweeted.
In other parts of the biography, Perry discusses his health scare that almost killed him as well as the ups and downs of his love life, which once purportedly featured Cameron Diaz punching Perry in the face.