Matthew Perry opened up about his disturbing experiences filming the final episode of Friends in his recently released memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
Matthew’s book, which hit shelves Nov. 1, candidly describes how his drug and alcohol addictions impacted his years on the popular NBC sitcom Friends.
Matthew portrayed Chandler Bing on the hit series, which aired from 1994 to 2004. He starred alongside David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow, who played Ross, Joey, Rachel, Monica and Phoebe, respectively.
And while Chandler became known for his wit and sarcasm, Matthew’s reality on set was a lot less light-hearted. The actor revealed his addiction – which led to serious medical complications – surfaced around the time he was cast for the show, aged 24.
Referring to his experiences filming the final installment – which was as emotional for fans as it was for the cast and crew – Matthew describes how his addiction affected the way he processed the momentous date.
In the episode, the beloved group of friends part ways once and for all when Monica and Chandler move from the legendary Manhattan apartment to the suburbs.
“It was January 23, 2004,” he recalls. “The keys on the counter, a guy who looked a lot like Chandler Bing said, ‘Where?'”
“‘Embryonic Journey’ by Jefferson Airplane played, the camera panned to the back of the apartment door, then Ben, our first AD and very close friend, cried out for the last time, ‘This is closure’, and almost tears broke out everyone’s eyes like so many geysers,” he writes.
But in stark contrast to his castmates, Matthew felt “nothing.”
“We had shot 237 episodes, including this last one, appropriately called ‘The Last One.’ Jennifer Aniston sobbed – after a while I was amazed that she still had water all over her body. Even Matt LeBlanc cried,” he writes. “But I didn’t feel anything.”
“I couldn’t tell if it was because of the opioid buprenorphine I was taking or if I was just dead inside,” he continues.
Then Matthew recalls choosing to take a “slow walk” with his then-girlfriend “instead of sobbing with the rest of the cast and crew.”
“Instead of sobbing, I walked slowly around the stage with my then-girlfriend – aptly named Rachel – on Stage 24 at Warner Bros. in Burbank (a stage renamed ‘The Friends Stage’ after the show ended, ‘” he writes.
“We said goodbye on several occasions, made arrangements to see each other soon, like people do when they know it’s not true, and then we went to my car,” he adds.
Elsewhere in his memoir, Matthew recalls being sent to a treatment facility for his alcohol and drug addictions after filming one of the show’s most popular episodes – Chandler and Monica’s wedding.
The sweet Double Bill special aired at the end of Season 7 and wowed fans around the world. However, as Matthew points out in his book, after filming wrapped, he was rushed to a treatment center.
“I married Monica and was driven back to the treatment center — at the peak of my peak on Friends, the peak of my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show — in a pickup truck driven by a sober technician,” he writes.
Additionally, in a recent interview with The New York Times, Matthew revealed that after going to rehab 15 times over the years to sober up, he spent an estimated $9 million on the trip.
“I probably spent $9 million or so getting sober,” he said.
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