George Clooney (left) and Matthew Perry.Photo:Dave Benett/WireImage; Gregg DeGuire/Getty
Dave Benett/WireImage; Gregg DeGuire/Getty
George Clooneyis sharing more about his decades-long friendship withMatthew Perryand why he believes the actor’s success onFriendsdidn’t bring him the happiness he’d always wanted.
While promoting his new movieThe Boys in the Boat, Clooney, 62, opened up about his relationship with Perry. In particular, Clooney noted how he witnessed Perry’s struggles with addiction while the duo were starring in their respective shows on NBC —ERandFriends— years ago.
“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old,” Clooney toldDeadline. “We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid.”
“All he would say to us, I mean me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth,” he recalled to the outlet.
George Clooney on ‘Friends’ circa 1996 beside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Noah Wyle.Fotos International/Getty
Fotos International/Getty
Though Perry eventually nabbed a role as Chandler Bing onFriends, Clooney said he still “wasn’t happy.” Despite fulfilling his childhood dreams, he claimed Perry’s feat “didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace.”
“And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him,” he continued of Perry’s struggle withsubstance abuse, which the actor spoke at lengths about throughout his life.
“We just knew that he wasn’t happy and I had no idea he was doing, what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff. And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness,” he added. “You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, and Courteney Cox in ‘Friends’.NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty
On Oct. 28, Perry wasfound deadat his Los Angeles home. He was 54.
The autopsy stated that Perry was “reportedly clean for 19 months” before his death, though he was practicing ketamine infusion therapy and had his latest treatment “one and a half weeks before” the accidental drowning. However, the coroner noted that “the ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”
Matthew Perry.Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic
Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic
Over the course of his life, the17 Againstar was vocal about his struggles with addiction. In his 2022 memoir,Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry opened up about his journey with sobriety and the sense of pride he felt about staying clean.
“I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side again,” he told PEOPLE at the time. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober—and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction—to write it all down. I was pretty certain that it would help people if I did.”
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And though Perry did struggle with substance abuse while starring onFriends, he spoke highly about how the role brought him — and fellow cast members,Jennifer Aniston.Courteney Cox,Lisa Kudrow,Matt LeBlancandDavid Schwimmer— viral fame.
“It changed my life in every way. I got the show when I was a 24-year-old man; the show ended when I was 34. It formed my life. And it was the time of my life,” Perry previously told PEOPLE.
Of the cast’s support through his ongoing addiction, Perry said, “They were understanding, and they were patient.”
He added: “It’s like penguins. In nature, when one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up and walk around until that penguin can walk on its own. And that’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
source: people.com
