- Matthew Perry says Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his drinking.
- Perry said the moment was “devastating” and that he was confused because he never drank on set.
- He said Aniston told him, “We can smell it.”
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Matthew Perry said it was “devastating” when Friends co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his alcohol addiction on the set of the hit sitcom.
In his memoir, titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, released Tuesday, Perry detailed his rise to fame and his years-long struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction. The actor notably played the sarcastic Chandler Bing on Friends, which ran for ten seasons between 1994 and 2004.
Perry said he “never got high while I was working,” but revealed that season 9 was “the only year I was completely sober for a season of Friends.” It was also the only season in which he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Actor in a Comedy.
“You can track the progression of my addiction if you measure my weight from season to season – if I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills. If I have a goatee, it’s a lot of pills,” he said.
Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry in Season 4 Episode 13 of Friends. Alice S. Hall/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
Perry said he contracted pancreatitis at the age of 30 and spent “30 days and nights” in the hospital on IV fluids. The actor said he was given “regular doses of a drug called Dilaudid” to relieve pain and it quickly became his “new drug of choice.”
He said he’s “high and happy” and signed on for seasons six and seven of Friends with “a feeding tube in my arm and Dilaudid running through my brain.”
Perry said that after leaving the hospital, he resumed taking and drinking Vicodin.
“I came back high as a kite for the next season of ‘Friends,’ and everyone knew something had to be done,” he said.
Courteney Cox as Monica, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel and Matthew Perry as Chandler in Friends. Warner Bros. Television/Getty Images
“I was told that methadone had no side effects,” he recalls. “That wasn’t true. In fact, it was the beginning of the end. Otherwise everything else went great. ‘Friends’ was still as successful as ever.”
Perry said that one day Aniston (Rachel Green), whom he used to have a crush on, went to his trailer and told him, “I know you drink.”
“I was long over her – I’ve been fine since she started dating Brad Pitt – and figured out exactly how long I had to look at her without being embarrassed, but still devastating, with Jennifer Aniston to be confronted.” Perrie wrote. “And I was confused.”
The 17 Again star asked Aniston how she could tell he wasn’t sober as he “never worked drunk” and tried to hide his addiction from the cast and crew.
“‘We can smell it,’ she said in a strange but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer,” Perry said.
Jennifer Aniston as Rachel and Matthew Perry as Chandler in Season 7 Episode 4 of Friends. NBCU photo bank
In his book, Perry said he “never worked high, but I definitely worked hungover” and needed someone to drive him to set.
The actor said that although people recognized his addiction, the show was too successful for his unhealthy habits to derail.
“Everyone asked me if I was okay, but nobody wanted to stop the ‘Friends’ train because he was such a moneymaker, and I just felt awful about it,” he said.