Mathew Perry says you can “track the trajectory” of his addiction during ‘Friends’
Mathew Perry is set to release his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing on October 28th, 2022. In the autobiography, Perry shares details of some of the darkest and most joyful days of his career. In a short excerpt from the forthcoming release, Perry opened up about his drug and alcohol addiction, telling fans that it’s possible to see which drugs he’s on in which episodes of Friends by looking at his weight and facial hair.
Perry landed the role of Chandler Bing when he was 25. The role made him a celebrity overnight, something Perry had longed for all his life. By 2002, each member of the six-part ensemble were earning $ 1 million per episode. Of course, by that time, Perry was in the depths of severe alcohol and drug addiction.
His dependency issues began following a jet-ski accident in 1997, after which the actor developed an addiction to Vicodin. “It wasn’t my intention to have a problem with it.” he later recalled. “But from the start, I liked how it made me feel, and I wanted to get more. I was out of control and very unhealthy. I returned to my original birth weight”.
During Friends, especially across seasons three to seven, Perry’s weight fluctuated massively. In Friends, Lovers, and Big Terrible Things, Perry says his physical appearance is a good indicator of what substance he was addicted to at any given time. “You can track the trajectory for my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season,” Perry writes. “When I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I’m skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.”
During the Friends Reunion special, Perry talked about how his addiction affected his performance. When he wasn’t onstage, Perry would apparently wait in the wings shivering with cold sweats. “I felt like I was going to die if they didn’t laugh,” he said. “It wasn’t healthy, for sure”. In the past, Perry has admitted to not remembering anything between season three and season six of Friends.
