The “Friends” star recounts how a visit from co-star Jennifer Aniston to his trailer made him realise his secret behaviour, when it came to alcohol, wasn’t so secret…reports Asian Lite News
“Friends” star Matthew Perry continues to share candid moments from his long journey to sobriety and the struggles he endured during his run on the long-running NBC sitcom even as he was yo-yoing between addictions to Vicodin and alcohol, reports CNN.
In an excerpt from his much-anticipated new book “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing”, the American Canadian actor recounts how a visit from co-star Jennifer Aniston to his trailer made him realise his secret behaviour, when it came to alcohol, wasn’t so secret. “I know you’re drinking,” she said.
Perry, now 53, writes in the memoir, in an excerpt published by the ‘Times’ of London: “I had long since gotten over her — ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine — and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating. And I was confused.”
Continuing his account of the visit by Aniston, Perry recalls asking her: “How can you tell? … I’ve been trying to hide it.”
Elsewhere in the excerpt, according to CNN, Perry mentioned how he “never” worked high or drunk (although he “certainly worked hungover”). He said he was largely able to function as part of the uber-successful ‘Friends’ ensemble, thanks to his castmates and how they would “group around (him) and prop (him) up” like an injured penguin being supported by the other penguins.
But that day in Perry’s trailer, Aniston told him plainly that he wasn’t getting away with anything.
“We can smell it,” she said, “in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer,” Perry writes. “I know I’m drinking too much,” I said, recalls Perry, “but I don’t exactly know what to do about it.”
“By the end of season three, I was spending most of my time figuring out how to get 55 Vicodin a day — I had to have 55 every day, otherwise I’d get so sick. It was a full-time job: making calls, seeing doctors, faking migraines, finding crooked nurses who would give me what I needed,” Perry writes.
“Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” by Matthew Perry will be published by Headline on November 1.
Xxx
‘Burned’ badly in romance
Matthew Perry broke up with a string of women over fears they would “annihilate” him.
The actor revealed in a new interview that he was “burned” badly in romances by partners who were only after his money, reports aceshowbiz.com.
Ahead of the publication of his new autobiography ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing’ he told People on Wednesday, about how he was always the person to end a relationship.
“That was me afraid. That is what I manifest, something that’s wrong with them. And then I break up with them. But there can’t be something wrong with everyone. I’m the common denominator. I left first because I thought they were going to annihilate me,” he explained.
Perry, who has dated Julia Roberts and Neve Campbell and was briefly engaged to literary manager Molly Hurwitz before they broke up in 2021, said he is now looking for a partner who is “self-supporting in every way”.
He added: “Somebody who has their own wealth is a pretty key component for me. I got burned a few times by women who wanted my money, not really caring about me… it happens more often than you think.”
Perry said about being on the lookout for a woman with a “sense of humour, beautiful inside and out, caring,” adding, “This is really important, somebody who can have a back and forth with me”. He added, “The next person I really take seriously is somebody that I’m going to be in love with and not be scared by the things that used to scare me. I’m not afraid of love anymore, so the next girl I go out with better watch out.”
Speaking about how he thinks he would make a “great” father, he went on, “I really do. I grew up with a lot of little kids around me, and that’s probably why, but I can’t wait.”
ALSO READ-Bollywood fashion inspirations for Diwali celebration