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Matthew Perry’s ‘Friends’ and George Clooney’s ‘ER’ were shot side by side on NBC
Matthew Perry was not happy while being starred in Friends, according to close friend George Clooney.
Being together on a successful NBC series, George Clooney recalled being “really close” with the Friends group, which included the late Matthew Perry.
“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together,” Clooney, 62, reminisced to Deadline in an interview published on Tuesday, December 19.
“He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid.”
Clooney remembered Perry’s desperation to land a regular role on a television show.
“All he would say to us — I mean me, [actor] Richard Kind and [filmmaker] 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,” Clooney recalled, further remarking that after Perry did get a starring role as Chandler Bing on Friends, the late alum “wasn’t happy.”
Clooney and Perry spent a lot of time together on their separate sets because ER and Friends were recorded “side by side” on the same NBC soundstage. Friends ran from 1994 to 2004, whereas ER ran from 1994 to 2009.
(In 1995, Clooney also made an unexpected guest appearance on a Friends episode.)
“It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace. And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him,” Clooney explained, talking about Perry’s addiction struggles.
“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.”
Clooney proceeded to derive a life lesson for Perry’s story.
“It also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness,” he explained. “You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”
Perry, 54, passed away on October 28. When police arrived at the actor’s Los Angeles home’s hot tub after receiving a report of a cardiac attack, they discovered him unconscious.
Perry’s cause of death was first “deferred” until a toxicology report was obtained.
Perry passed away from “the acute effects of ketamine,” according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s report, which was released on December 15.
