After rising to fame in the iconic role of Chandler Bing on “Friends,” which aired for 10 seasons between 1994 to 2004 and has maintained a tight grip on the cultural zeitgeist over the years by continuing to find new audiences on streaming, Perry died at 54 on Oct. 28, 2023.
asserted
Perry → rise → Oct.
The actor’s sister, Mia Perry Bowick, speaks out onscreen for the first time in the doc, along with several of his lifelong friends.
asserted
sister → speak → friends
However, none of his “Friends” co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — opted to participate in the project.
asserted
none → opt → project
Perry felt ‘very similar’ to Chandler
asserted
Perry → feel → Chandler
When Perry auditioned for “Friends,” he said he thought Chandler was “very similar to [him],” describing him in archival footage played in the doc as “a guy who was sort of trying to distract everybody from how miserable he was all the time by being funny.”
asserted
he → audition → everybody
“I do remember that [Perry] said, ‘Somebody has written a script – this is me,'” his longtime pal, David Pressman, said.
asserted
pal → remember → script
Former NBC executive Warren Littlefield recalled that there was “anxiety” among the “Friends” producers, because the casting was easy, except for Chandler.
asserted
casting → recall → Chandler
“And then, Matthew Perry came into the room,” he said.
asserted
he → come → room
It took “less than 30 seconds” of Perry’s audition for everyone in the room to feel, “‘Oh yeah, this is it.
asserted
this → take → room
He just nailed it,'” Littlefield said.
asserted
Littlefield → nail → it
Perry had two families, which made him feel like he was ‘too needy’
asserted
he → have → families
“The beliefs that I had were: I was too needy, I wasn’t enough, and I didn’t matter…
asserted
I → have → that
my whole life was about trying to have those three things not be true,” Perry said in archival footage.
asserted
Perry → try → footage
After his parents split when he was a baby, Perry noted, “The only way I’d get to see my father on a regular basis was on television.”
asserted
I → split → television
When Perry was just 5, he flown alone from his mother’s house in Montreal to his father in Los Angeles.
asserted
he → fly → Angeles
“They put a thing on my head that said ‘unescorted minor’ and I was incredibly scared,” he recalled.
asserted
he → put → minor
Both of Perry’s parents went on to have other families: his mother Suzanne married “Dateline” anchor Keith Morrison, and the couple had four children, while Perry’s father married Debbie Boyle, and the couple welcomed Bowick.
asserted
couple → go → Bowick
Perry was allegedly unsurprised to become famous
As “Friends” swiftly became a phenomenon, Littlefield recalled, “The cast had this feeling of like, ‘Us? This is happening to us?’ and Matthew was like, ‘Of course this is happening!’”
uncertain
this → become → us
Bowick noted that her brother’s fame was a “massive life shift” moment for their entire family.
asserted
fame → note → family
“Any time I was with him, we’d be followed by paparazzi and get our picture taken, too,” she recalled.
asserted
she → follow → paparazzi
Perry was ‘generous’ with his money
Bowick noted that her older brother was “always incredibly generous with his money.”
asserted
brother → note → money
For Christmas when she was 15, she recalled that they were leaving a restaurant when the valet drove up in a red Ford Mustang convertible and asked, “Is Mia Perry here?”
asserted
Perry → recall → convertible
When Bowick replied with confusion, she recalled that Perry told her, “Yeah, that is your car – Merry Christmas!”
asserted
that → reply → her
Perry ‘did well with girls’
Pressman said that Perry “did well with girls” because “he knew how to charm them,” adding that the duo visited the Playboy Mansion together “a lot.”
asserted
duo → do → Mansion
Perry’s friend Marjorie Harris Newman, noted that Perry “had this sort of persona” that he “never” got the girl and would say, “But when I’m famous, I’ll get all the girls.”
asserted
I → note → girls
Former “Friends” writer Jeff Strauss said that Perry went from being someone who was awkward with women in similar ways to Chandler to becoming “a guy who was fighting women off” when he found fame.
asserted
he → say → fame
Perry’s experience of fame ‘started to shift’
Bowick noted that in the beginning it appeared Perry “liked the fame but, at some point, it did start to shift.”
asserted
it → start → point
In archival footage, Perry admitted, “I was extremely happy when I got famous.
asserted
I → admit → footage
“This didn’t fix what’s inside of me,” he said.
asserted
he → fix → me
“This didn’t do what I thought it was gonna do.”
asserted
it → do → what
The actor had a “sense of emptiness or loneliness” dating back to his childhood that he “couldn’t quite fill,” Bowick explained, noting that it was it was “hard for him to find a space he felt really secure in” as he got shuffled between his two families.
asserted
he → have → families
Perry started drinking when he was 14
When Perry was 14, he got intoxicated for the first time “and was in heaven.”
asserted
he → start → heaven
“I thought, ‘This must be the way that normal people feel all the time,’” he said in archival footage.
asserted
he → think → footage
Because he was “secretive” and “would drink alone,” Perry’s friends didn’t know about it right away, Newman said.
asserted
Newman → drink → it
She speculated that alcohol reached “that very deep part of himself that always thought he was not enough,” adding that she thinks “he felt that becoming famous would fill that hole.”
asserted
becoming → speculate → hole
Perry started abusing painkillers because of a jet ski accident
Doug Draizin, the producer of Perry’s 1997 rom-com “Fools Rush in” recalled that the shoot was going well until the actor “got permission to get on a jet ski” on Lake Mead during lunch break.
asserted
actor → start → break
“He flung himself in the air, and he hurt himself,” Draizin said.
asserted
Draizin → fling → himself
In archival footage, Perry explained that doctors gave him a painkillers at the time, from which he “felt this incredible euphoria.”
asserted
he → explain → euphoria
“So why wouldn’t I take more?” he reasoned.
asserted
he → take → more
“And I started to feel sick when I wasn’t taking them.”
asserted
I → start → them
…and 155 more, not listed.
The Aporia
