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They famously showed a loyalty to each other that was rare in Hollywood – Friends onscreen, and off it, too.
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that → publish → it
Indeed, when the six stars of the legendary sitcom negotiated their mega-bucks pay deal – asking for a then unheard of $1million per episode in 2002 – they got it, because they stood as one.
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they → negotiate → one
And when they left the series together in 2004, they never spoke a public word about each other that wasn’t imbued with love and respect.
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that → leave → love
Little wonder, then, that when one of their number, Matthew Perry, who played wisecracking Chandler Bing, died aged 54 following a ketamine overdose in 2023, they again stood together in grief.
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they → play → grief
Now a three-part Netflix documentary entitled The One About Matthew Perry is being released, which reveals the depths of the cast members’ desolation when they attended their tragic co-star’s funeral.
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they → entitle → funeral
And the Daily Mail understands the result is an extraordinary insight into the affection in which Perry was held and the profound grief that the Hollywood machine, which some would argue helped precipitate his downfall, could not save him.
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some → understand → him
Speaking for the first time about her brother’s death, the actor’s younger sister Mia Perry Bowick, to whom he was exceptionally close, tells the Netflix show: ‘At the funeral we arranged for it to be open casket for all of us and that was when we completely broke down.
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we → speak → us
‘The funeral was very small, family and close friends only – and then the rest of the Friends cast all walked in together.
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rest → walk → cast
I hadn’t seen them in easily over 20 years.
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I → see → years
And Jen Aniston was the first one to come over and give me a huge hug and then they all did and then all five of them walked up to the casket holding hands and they stood around him crying.’
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they → come → him
One might then expect the co-stars to also describe that awful day – and their friendship – onscreen.
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stars → expect → day
But none of the three episodes, to be released next week, contains a single word from any of the five surviving Friends; Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer or Matt LeBlanc.
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none → release → Friends
Why, you might think, did none of them appear in tribute to their much-loved Matty?
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none → think → Matty
After all, the show is filled with figures from Perry’s life.
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show → fill → life
Their abiding love for him is palpable.
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love → abide → him
Did one of the Friends refuse, and so all felt they had to?
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they → refuse → Friends
For her part, Mary Robertson, who directed the documentary, said: ‘I know the Friends actors love Matthew, and grieve Matthew.
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actors → direct → Matthew
We did ask them if they would participate, and they decided not to.
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they → ask → them
‘I think everyone grieves in their own way.
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everyone → think → way
And I understand why someone might feel that this isn’t the moment to talk.’
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this → understand → ?
Matthew Perry was seen running errands in Los Angeles just weeks before his death
Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc Lisa Kudrow and Perry in 1994
A new Netflix documentary entitled The One About Matthew Perry is set to reveal the depths of the cast members’ desolation when they attended their co-star’s funeral
A source close to Aniston told showbiz website Page Six that she ‘doesn’t want to relive it and have it be so public’.
And there is much to relive.
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it → see → it
Over three poignant episodes, the footage charts Perry’s early years trying to break into Hollywood, his complex relationship with fame and his pitiful descent into drink and drug abuse.
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footage → chart → abuse
From his early devotion to a young actress in his circle called Marjorie Harris Newman – whom he was trying to impress when, drunk, he crashed the car in which they were driving – to his disbelief at briefly dating A-lister Julia Roberts, the documentary charts his path to self-destruction.
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documentary → call → destruction
Doug Draizin, who produced the 1997 romantic comedy When Fools Rush In, starring Perry and Salma Hayek, when the actor was at his peak of Friends’ fame, says it was not clear something serious was amiss.
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something → produce → fame
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Draizin said: ‘I didn’t know anything about [Perry’s] problems, including him being given drugs by a doctor, other than getting calls from the wardrobe department about his fluctuating weight.
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him → speak → weight
He’d go from a size 40 to a 36.
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He → go → 36
I thought maybe he had flu or something,’ he said.
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he → think → flu
Already struggling with alcohol – he’d started drinking at 14 in reaction to the emotional turbulence that accompanied his parents’ divorce and by 18 was imbibing daily – circumstances then led him to become severely dependent on painkillers.
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circumstances → struggle → painkillers
During a break in filming in 1996, the actor sustained back injuries while jet-skiing and was given the painkiller Vicodin (an opioid with paracetamol) by a doctor.
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actor → sustain → doctor
‘I couldn’t believe how good I felt; I was in complete and pure euphoria,’ Perry wrote in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
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Perry → believe → memoir
‘It was the greatest feeling I’d ever had.
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I → have → ?
Nothing could ever go wrong.’
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Nothing → go → ?
He later expanded on this, saying, ‘And then I started kinda feeling sick when I wasn’t taking them… then you take three, and then you take four…’
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you → expand → four
Perry later speculated that if he hadn’t been introduced to Vicodin, the next 30 years of his life would have been dramatically different.
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years → speculate → life
But then, as friends and family tell the documentary, Perry’s addictions had their roots in complex insecurities.
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addictions → tell → insecurities
Harris Newman, who befriended him in the late 1980s, says: ‘I think Matthew was searching for something internal to be soothed or filled…
‘I learned about how secretive he was about the drinking; that he would drink by himself.
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he → befriend → himself
Alcohol probably quieted that very deep part of himself that always thought he was not enough and I think he felt that becoming famous would fill that hole.
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becoming → quiet → hole
But even though he became a superstar there was still something in his psyche that couldn’t be soothed.
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that → become → psyche
And he certainly tried to address that void.
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he → try → void
His sister Mia – who latterly trained as a grief counsellor – says: ‘He spent about $7million [£5.233million] over his lifetime trying to get sober.
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He → train → lifetime
…and 56 more, not listed.
The Aporia
