George Clooney said he doesn’t believe the late actor Matthew Perry was truly happy working on the hit NBC sitcom “Friends.”
Perry was best known for his portrayal of Chandler Bing on the popular series, which many consider to be one of the greatest television comedies of all time. But Clooney claims that his colleague wasn’t fulfilled by the work, despite thinking he would be.
“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old,” Clooney told Deadline in an interview published Tuesday. “We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid.”
The “Ocean’s 11” star went on to recall how Perry had dreamed of starring in a TV series since he was young.
“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,” Clooney continued.
The actor said Perry “wasn’t happy” even after scoring the role of a lifetime as Chandler on “Friends.” Despite always wanting to be a TV star, he said the role “didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace.”
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Clooney was starring in “ER” at the same time Perry was on “Friends.” The two shows were filmed close to each other, plus the two actors saw each other when Clooney made a guest appearance on “Friends.”
“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,” he said of Perry’s struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.
“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 said. “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.”
Perry was found dead at his Los Angeles home on October 28. He was 54.
The “Friends” star died from acute effects of ketamine, according to an autopsy report from the Los Angeles County Coroner. The drug is often used to counteract the effects of depression. Contributing factors listed were “drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects.”