Matthew Perry had a serious drug problem for most of his run on Friends. It’s easy to tell his highs and lows based on the chub in his face. Go back and watch a couple episodes. If it’s thin Chandler, he was strung out. Fat Chandler was either in recovery or hitting the Kraft services hard.
In a recent interview with BBC Radio, Perry admitted just how bad his drug addiction got during those years.
He was asked which episode was his least favorite, and he answered: “Oh my goodness. I think the answer is I don’t remember three years of it. So none of those … somewhere between season 3 and 6.” He then added, “a little bit of the time, I was a little out of it, yeah.”
The actor has been open about his addictions, telling People magazine in 2013 that he became hooked on prescription medication after being receiving them in 1997 following a Jet Ski accident. He told the outlet: “I had a big problem with pills and alcohol, and I couldn’t stop.”
It’s amazing, and a discussion for another time, but anti-drug people get so fucking wrapped up in weed leading to other drugs etc. and almost every single story I read about a person hooked on drugs begins with “I was given pain meds by a doctor.”
Perry didn’t show up for the Friends reunion that was filmed over the weekend. He had a legit reason, he’s working on another project and is currently in London, but I don’t blame the guy for not wanting to play a character from his past that probably reminds him of some incredibly awful times.
[via Esquire]