Matthew Perry takes aim at Keanu Reeves: Why did “Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
Matthew Perry has a new book coming out, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, that includes quite a few eyebrow-raising anecdotes. You’ve probably heard the one recently about how the Friends actor has spent an estimated $9 million trying to get sober or how he nearly died in 2018 thanks to his opioid addictions.
Perry talks openly and honestly about his addictions in the memoir, and he even takes some time to eulogise some of his friends who lost their own battles with drug abuse.
“The list of geniuses who were ahead of their time is too long to detail here — suffice to say, near the top of any such list should be my costar in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, River Phoenix,” Perry writes. “River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down.”
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Perry decides to take a shot at one of the most beloved actors of the modern day, Keanu Reeves. “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us? River was a better actor than me; I was funnier. But I certainly held my own in our scenes — no small feat, when I look back decades later.”
Perry takes some time to comment on Chris Farley later in the book, but again it comes paired with a knock against Reeves. “His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin,’ a fear we did not share),” Perry writes. “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out [Farley died]. Keanu Reeves walks among us. I had to promote Almost Heroes two weeks after he died; I found myself publicly discussing his death from drugs and alcohol. I was high the entire time.”
Why Perry felt the need to throw jabs at Reeves not just once but twice in his book is anyone’s guess. As far as I can tell, the two have never shared the stage or screen together. Did they meet as two mega-famous 1990s figures and have a bad falling out? What did Reeves do that still makes Perry fume? Is this all just one big joke? I mean, could this be any more of a mystery?
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is available on November 1st.
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