Friends Star Matthew Perry’s Memoir Reveals Most Shocking Details
Friends Star Matthew Perry’s memoir reveals the most shocking details including his career and health issues.
The actor also opens up about his long journey with addiction, noting he almost died a few years ago at age 49.
The American actor has shared detailed accounts about his drug abuse, family dynamics, and on-set memories in his new memoir.
Matthew Perry’s Memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” contains some bombshell revelations
“Acting was another one of my drugs,” he writes. “And it didn’t do the damage that alcohol was already starting to do. In fact, it was getting harder and harder to wake up after a night of drinking.”
Other than his addiction and acting gigs, Perry went on to discuss many of his high-profile relationships, including his romance with Tricia Leigh Fisher, the half-sister of the late Carrie Fisher, when he was 18.
He makes revelations about how their relationship deepened, recalling how he lost his virginity to her.
“That night, by the dint of a miraculous universe and the ministrations of a beautiful young woman who deserved better, I finally first misplaced my virginity then lost it altogether,” he writes.
Without referring to Molly Hurwitz by name, he does open up about their engagement in November 2020.
“I bought her a ring because I was desperate that she would leave me,” he recalls in his memoir. “I didn’t want to be this injured and alone during Covid.”
He also revealed that he was “high on 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone” when he asked her to marry him.
Perry also recalled his working experience with Bruce Willis in the 2000 film The Whole Nine Yards.
The Whole Nine Yards became a major hit, which incidentally led to Willis’ guest appearance on Friends.
“Bruce hadn’t been sure the film would work at all, and I’d bet him it would — if he lost, he had to do a guest spot on Friends,” he wrote, adding, “(he’s in three episodes of season six).”
Perry also revealed that he had already booked the “LAX 2194” pilot when he got the offer for “Friends,” but eventually got out of it and was paid $22,500 for that one episode.
He went on to make more than $1 million a week on “Friends,” thanks to David Schwimmer.
“It was a decision that proved to be extremely lucrative down the line. David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn’t. I would like to think that I would have made the same move, but as a greedy twenty-five-year-old, I’m not sure I would have. But his decision served to make us take care of each other through what turned out to be a myriad of stressful network negotiations, and it gave us a tremendous amount of power,” he wrote.
“By season eight, we were making a million dollars per episode; by season ten we were making even more. We were making $1,100,040 an episode, and we were asking to do fewer episodes. Morons, all of us. We had David’s goodness, and his astute business sense, to thank for what we had been offered. I owe you about $30 million, David. (We were still morons.)”
Matthew Perry reveals that during COVID, he was at a rehab center in Switzerland and faked pain to get 1,800 milligrams of Oxycontin a day and was having daily ketamine infusions.
Perry then had to get surgery while there and was given a shot of propofol and woke up 11 hours later in a different hospital and was told that the propofol had stopped his heart for five minutes. The long CPR process also broke eight of his ribs and the doctor refused more meds.
He was told When he left Switzerland that he would still get the 1,800 milligrams at an L.A. hospital.
So he paid $175,000 to fly in a private jet home and was told no! The doctor informed him that cancer patients are given 100 mg. Later, he booked another $175,000 private flight that same night back to Switzerland.
