George Clooney has just opened up about Matthew Perry’s tragic death, and he reflected on the fact that the late actor wasn’t happy despite landing his dream job with Friends and all the success he got.
During his promo for his new movie, The Boys in the Boat, Clooney, 62, also addressed his relationship with Perry. Clooney’s show, ER, premiered the same year as Friends, also on NBC, airing on the same night. Clooney was also a guest star in Season 1, Episode 7, “The One with Two Part: Part 2,” adding that he was close with the Friends cast. He and Perry went way back and witnessed his struggles with addiction while both of them were starring in their respective shows on NBC.
“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old,” Clooney explained in an interview with Deadline. “We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid. He was a kid and all he would say to us, I mean me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, ‘I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth.’ And he got on probably one of the best ever.”
“He wasn’t happy,” the Ocean’s Eleven actor continued. “It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace. And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Bros., we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him. We just knew that he wasn’t happy and I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff. And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”
A Look At Matthew Perry’s Life And Best Roles
Matthew Perry’s breakout role was in the beloved sitcom Friends, where he played Chandler Bing, usually quoted as the best Friends character. He played the role for ten seasons between 1994 and 2004, receiving a Primetime Emmy nomination. In 2021, he joined his co-stars for the Max reunion special, Friends: The Reunion, where they reflected on their time on the show.
Some of his other roles included other TV shows, including Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Mr. Sunshine, The Good Wife, Go On, The Good Fight, and The Odd Couple. He also received praise and Emmy nominations for his roles in The West Wing and The Ron Clark Story. Perry also starred in movies, including the beloved comedy Fools Rush In, The Whole Nine Yards, and 17 Again.
Despite the success and fame he received after Friends and his subsequent roles, Chandler Perry struggled with addiction. Perry addressed his hardships in his memoir published last year called Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. There, Matthew Perry revealed his best work extended beyond Friends, as he helped other addicts in their journey to get sober. Matthew Perry passed away on October 28 at the age of 54, and the toxicology report revealed “high levels of ketamine” in his blood.
