Matthew Perry was best known for his stint on the popular comedy series FRIENDS, which ran from 1994 to 2004.
Matthew Perry, 51, has explained why re-watching the episodes of the hit sitcom from the 1990s is difficult for him.
Matthew Perry's rise to stardom
Born on August 19, 1969, Matthew Perry is a well-known American actor. Following a string of bit parts and failed pilots, Perry shot to fame in the mid-1990s for his role on the sitcom Friends from 1994 to 2004, earning him a Primetime Emmy nomination in 2002.
Perry played the witty and sarcastic Chandler Bing, who shared an apartment with an aspiring actor named Joey, played by Matt LeBlanc, and was a longtime friend of Ross, played by David Schwimmer. Completing the cast, Courteney Cox played Monica, Ross' sister; Jennifer Aniston played Rachel, Monica's roommate, and Ross’ love interest; and Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe, the kooky, offbeat friend to all.
The six actors proved to be a tight group both on- and off-screen. They banded together to renegotiate their contracts after Friends became a huge hit—a must-watch show for many Americans on Thursday nights.
Sad reason why Perry can never watch FRIENDS again
Years after the show's smashing success, however, Matthew Perry has revealed the sad reason why he is unable to watch the show.
Throughout his time on the program, the actor who played Chandler Bing struggled with drug and alcohol problems. According to TV Fanatic, the Serving Sara actor just published his memoir, which details his fights and how they affected his time behind the scenes.
Even though Friends is tremendously popular, Matthew has stated that he finds it difficult to watch the show since it reminds him of his troubles. As many people already know, Perry has been dealing with a years-long battle with addiction, which stems from his time playing Chandler Bing on Friends.
`I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show', he later explained, ‘because I could go, drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine’.
The 53-year-old star gushed:
‘I could tell season by season by how I looked. That’s why I don’t wanna watch it because that’s what I see.’
According to Perez Hilton, Matthew could figure out what medications he was using during each season, and he also noted how his presence on the show made it difficult for him to watch. As a result, it becomes extremely difficult for him to reminisce on the not so memorable past.
‘I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people, and that’s why I can’t watch the show, because I was brutally thin. I had a rule that I would never drink or do drugs while working’
The actor continued emotionally:
‘Because I had too much respect for the five people I was working with. So I was never wasted while working.The thing that always makes me cry... is that it’s not fair. It’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t.'
The actor was dead inside
After ten years, the show ended in 2004, with the companions saying their final farewell to the audience as well as each other.
In his autobiography, Matthew stated that while everyone else was ‘sobbing’ over the final, he was ‘numb’ and felt ‘nothing’. He couldn't tell if his numbness was due to the hefty chemical mixture he was taking or because he was ‘generally dead inside’.
Matthew did remark that he expects to be well enough to see the show again soon.
In an interview with CBC, he stated:
‘I think I’m gonna start to watch it because it has been an incredible thing to watch it touch the hearts of different generations’.
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