After actor Matthew Perry died on Saturday at the age of 54, fans began circulating some comments he made during a 2022 interview about how he would most like to be remembered.
Perry was discussing his memoir — “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing” — with Tom Power, and he said that he would much rather be remembered for the way he helped the people around him even when he was not able to help himself.
“I want to leave Matthew Perry’s own words here as the way we remember him,” actress Mira Sorvino said in a post to X. “There will never be another like him — he lit up so many hearts in so many ways. Godspeed to Paradise!”
I want to leave Matthew Perry’s own words here as the way we remember him. There will never be another like him- he lit up so many hearts in so many ways. Godspeed to Paradise! pic.twitter.com/rUYSeD7tW0
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) October 29, 2023
Perry’s interview with Power was one of many that he did to promote his memoir, in which he spoke frankly about the ongoing battle with addiction (the titular “Big Terrible Thing”) that had almost killed him.
“I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in life. I’m still working through it personally, but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me?’ I will always say, ‘Yes, I know how to do that. I can do that for you, even if I can’t always do it for myself.’ So I do that, whenever I can,” Perry told Power during the interview..
The actor, best known for the decade he spent playing the slightly neurotic Chandler Bing on NBC’s “Friends,” said that he was certainly proud of his work of that show and on other projects — but that if he could choose, that wouldn’t be then first thing people thought of when they remembered him.
“When I die, I know people will talk about ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends,'” he said. “And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun of my struggles on the world wide web. But when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if ‘Friends’ were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people. I know it won’t happen, but it would be nice.”
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