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George Clooney has claimed Friends didn't bring “joy, happiness or peace” to his long-time friend Matthew Perry.
Perry, who rose to fame for his role as Chandler Bing on the popular NBC sitcom, was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28. He was 54.
In a new interview with Deadline, Clooney, 62, remembered the late actor as “a great, funny, funny, funny boy.”
“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We played paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me,” the Oceans Eleven star said.
“He was a kid and all he would say to us, I mean me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, 'I just want to be on a sitcom, man.' I just want to be on a regular sitcom and would be the happiest man in the world,” Clooney continued.
“And he probably put in one of the best performances of all time. He wasn't happy. It brought him neither joy nor happiness nor peace. And watching that on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were right next to each other there — it was hard to watch because we didn't know what was going on inside him.”
He added: “We just knew he wasn't happy and I had no idea what he was doing, 12 Vicodin a day and all that stuff he was talking about, all that heartbreaking stuff.” And it also just shows you, that success, money and all these things don't automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”
George Clooney and Matthew Perry
(Getty Images)
By the time Perry joined Friends, Clooney had also landed his starring role on the long-running NBC hospital series ER. In a mini-ode to his character Doug, he and ER co-star Noah Whyole guest-starred on Friends as two doctors who go on a double date with Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) in season 1 episode 17, “The One.” ) have two parts: Part 2”.
Perry, whose death shocked the world, was vocal about his struggles with alcohol and drug addiction and wrote candidly about his journey to sobriety in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
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Nearly two months after his death, it was revealed that Perry's death was due to the “acute effects of ketamine.” He received ketamine infusion therapy, the final toxicology report said.
The autopsy also listed drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine as contributing factors to his cause of death. His death was ruled an accident.
Perry's cause of death was originally deferred after an initial autopsy showed no signs of meth or fentanyl in his body.