The One About Matthew Perry (2026) s01e02 Episode Script

[traffic humming]
[woman mutters indistinctly]
[cameras clicking]
-[man 1 muttering indistinctly]
-[man 2] Matthew.
[indistinct chatter]
[female fan] Matthew Perry, I love you!
[cameras clicking]
[man speaking indistinctly]
[paparazzo] What's new, Matthew?
-You're gonna carry my luggage for me?
-[paparazzo] Oh, okay, that'll be fine.
[tense music playing]
[man] Matthew Perry,
who plays Chandler Bing,
what has fame done?
-Suddenly, everybody knows you.
-[snaps fingers]
It's a very strange thing. The way
that I look at it is kind of 85% perfect,
your dream's coming true…
-[fan] Matthew.
-[cameras clicking]
[Matthew] …15% scary, strange, weird.
We cool, man. You get enough?
-[Larry King] Tabloids?
-Yeah, all that stuff.
[tense music continues]
[Mia] One day, when I was 16,
I was checking out some groceries,
and there on the tabloid was like…
Matthew Perry, addiction scandal,
blah, blah, some crappy thing like that.
I just remember thinking like,
"That's obviously not true."
Like, I would know.
I would know if something was going on.
I'm his sister, we're close.
I know all the things about him.
[reporter] Perry is being treated
for drug addiction.
[Mia] So I went home
and said to my parents,
"Isn't that weird?"
"Like, there's no way that's true, right?"
And my parents said,
"Well, actually, he's in rehab right now."
-[music swells]
-[phone rings]
The call to me was from the producers
and also with his management.
The producers said,
"Matthew has a problem,"
and Matthew said, "I have a problem."
[Matthew] It was never my intention
to get in trouble with this thing.
And I didn't want to have it affect work.
[Warren] We had a monster hit show,
but if we were going to have Matthew
being healthier and back at work,
this is what had to happen.
Matthew chose a very tough rehab program
in the middle of the country.
It was like,
"I need to be in a tough environment,
holding myself accountable."
So our belief was
that Matthew was wounded,
and he would heal.
[Roger] I was hopeful
when he went to rehab.
You go to the doctor.
You have a broken arm.
You put a cast on, and you fix it.
So we just thought,
"He's gonna fix himself, and that's it."
You know? [inhales deeply]
And, uh…
[clicks tongue softly]
…you know, the rest.
[chuckles sadly]
[melancholic music playing]
[music swells, then fades]
[faint traffic hum]
-[soft beep]
-[interviewer] Oh, everybody set?
Okay, there.
First of all, tell me, why…
why do you guys think the show is as good
or does it feel as good or even better
to you guys at this point in time
as the first… first season that went on?
I think it's me.
-I do too, actually.
-Do you, really?
-I can honestly say it's because of you.
-That saves time.
-That saves time.
-It does.
-Great.
-Yeah, so…
-Next.
-Next.
-[interviewer] That story's over.
-[Matthew laughs]
No, really answer.
Okay, um…
I think it's because of Matthew Perry.
-I'm telling the truth.
-I know.
No. Um, why is it better this year?
Um, it's just some really talented people,
who are really invested in, you know…
in… in the work
and coming up with this storyline.
Uh, you know, which Courteney's
been begging to do for years.
-Uh…
-[Courteney chuckling]
I think revitalized
some of… some of the stuff in the room
because they enjoyed, the, uh…
how neurotic we both are,
and taking the most neurotic characters
in the show
and having them try
to have a relationship.
[switches clicking]
[applause and cheering]
[Mia] During season four of Friends,
Monica and Chandler got together.
I remember Matthew making sure
that we were going to watch that night,
and there's this big surprise,
and he was really excited.
[director] Action.
[door knob rattles]
-[Ross] I'm getting married today!
-Morning, Ross.
Oh, woo-hoo! Hee-he-hee!
[door slams shut]
[audience laughing]
-Do you think he knew I was here?
-[audience gasps and exclaims]
[cheering and applause]
[Warren] When she pops out
from under those sheets,
like, what a reveal, show-stopping number.
The audience was beside themselves.
[interviewer] Did that surprise you?
I don't think anyone thought of it,
and then it was like,
"Oh, this is brilliant
to bring those two together."
-Mm-hmm.
-Who would've thought?
I had wanted to be in a relationship
with, uh, Matthew in real life for so long
that I was, um…
-See what I'm saying?
-He was not… He didn't…
He just never really went for it.
So I did have to do a lot of persuading.
But, um, we were…
I know that we were in England.
-We were under the covers.
-There are no true jokes, just…
-But go ahead.
-Yeah.
There's no real jokes.
A lot of the show was really about, like,
Rachel and Ross, and Rachel and Ross.
I think sometimes Matthew just didn't feel
quite as spotlit in the ensemble.
[dramatic music playing]
And when Matty got to kind of come in
with, uh, Courteney
and have that together,
he was really excited about it.
He was not just silly Chandler anymore.
Because I'm in love with Monica.
-You're… You're what?
-[door opens]
[audience cheering]
That's right. I love her.
I love her.
It opened up a lot of new avenues
with his acting
in terms of being tender
and romantic and vulnerable.
I love you, Monica.
I love you too, Chandler.
[audience exclaiming and cheering]
[Mia] I think we all really knew
how much Matthew wanted that too.
You're on one of the biggest shows
on TV right now. Good-looking guy.
You must be… women everywhere.
Well, you know, it's not really like that.
I'm… I'm dating a little bit.
-And, you know, that's about it.
-Mm-hmm. You're taking it slow.
-Playing the field.
-Mm-hmm.
But, you know,
literally playing the field.
Like, going out to places
with a glove and a ball
and asking girls to go outside and…
-Uh-huh.
-[audience applauding]
[bright music playing]
[woman] I met Matty in '99
at a celebrity hockey game,
and it was during season five of Friends.
Our first date, we went to dinner.
And then after dinner,
he wanted to go to this
like divey karaoke bar in Hollywood.
And they were closing.
And so he slipped him
a hundred-dollar bill,
and they turned the machines back on,
and he sang me a song.
It was very cute.
He sang, um, "Carolina on my Mind."
[man singing "Carolina on my Mind"]
I was immediately attracted to him.
Like, the… the chemistry was instant.
Like, we were able to have conversations
that no words were spoken.
Like, if we were out to lunch, whatever,
and he would go to the restroom,
he'd walk back in, and he'd go,
like, to do a move, and I'd go…
And then he'd go… And I'd go…
And then he'd walk forward and he goes,
do his little thing, and then I'd go…
And then…
We had a whole, like,
little bits we would do.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[director] Quiet on the set!
Rolling sound!
Action!
[René] He was on top of the world
on Friends.
Going to tapings was fun.
We would watch it in his dressing room
when he was filming.
I'd be up there crocheting him a blanket,
and so I'd see it on the monitor.
[comic music playing]
He loved what he did,
and it was fun to watch him be happy.
-[fan 1] Matthew!
-[fan 2] Hey, Matthew!
[René] He told me
I was a lot of his firsts.
He's like, "You're the first person
that people don't know about
that I'm taking out into the world
and showing you off."
-[fan 1] Matthew!
-[fan 2] Matthew! Whoo!
-[indistinct chatter]
-[cameras clicking]
-[paparazzo] How are you doing, Matthew?
-[Matthew] Hi.
[René] Being out with him in public
was hard.
I don't think anyone cared
about his privacy.
I don't think he had privacy.
[man] Hey, Matthew!
Hi.
[lighthearted music playing]
[René] The most fun times that we had
were with…
It was just his friends at his house
or one of their houses,
and we'd play games, or, uh,
like at Courteney and David's wedding.
I realized it was becoming serious
when he said he loved me
for the first time.
Except that didn't go very well,
because he didn't say, "I love you."
We were on the couch,
and, uh, like, he sat up and looked at me,
and I was like,
"Oh, I think he's gonna say it."
And then he goes, "I luff you."
L-U-F-F.
And I was like, "What?"
[inhales deeply]
It didn't…
It took a minute for him to explain to me
why that was a better thing
than saying "love,"
because of the movie Annie Hall.
There's a line in there that, um,
as Woody Allen says,
it says, "I luff you."
Do you love me?
I mean, "love" is… is too weak a word
for the way I feel.
-I lurve you, you know, I loave you.
-[chuckles]
I luff you, with two F's, yes.
And so it ended up being really sweet,
but it just didn't start very well.
But I was in love with him
because he's, at the core, good people.
[melancholic music playing]
When you think of Matthew Perry,
you think, "Oh, he had it all."
But Matthew was concerned about
what's next. "What's next?"
"How am I gonna maintain this?
How am I gonna supersede this?"
Matthew wanted very much
to be a serious actor.
He wanted to be known as a serious actor.
That was really important to him.
So Matthew was very excited
to be cast in The Whole Nine Yards.
I think he was most excited
to work with Bruce Willis.
I'd gotten this script,
and he left a message on my machine,
uh, that said basically this,
"Uh, yeah, Matthew Perry,
this is Bruce Willis,
call me back right away
or I'm gonna burn your house down
and drag you outside of your house
carrying your bloody stumps."
[audience laughing]
-Friendly.
-Yeah.
So I… I opted to call him back.
[audience laughing]
He was excited to be with Bruce Willis
because we were all big Die Hard fans,
and they became pretty friendly.
[René] Before he went to shoot
The Whole Nine Yards,
Bruce asked him and I
to go to Turks and Caicos
with him and his then girlfriend.
Um, it was pretty amazing.
There weren't paparazzi there,
so it got to be a nice, normal, fun trip.
[rapid clicks]
And when Bruce asked him and I
to go on his private plane,
Matthew was so excited.
He's like, "Bruce wants us
to go on his private plane."
"Bruce wants me
to share a plane with him."
"Bruce Willis!"
I was like,
"Yeah, that's pretty exciting."
[engines roaring]
[cheerful music playing]
[interviewer] How was the plane?
[exhales excitedly]
I joined a club.
[René laughing]
[tires screech]
My name is Jonathan Lynn.
I directed The Whole Nine Yards.
When I met Matthew,
I'd seen him on television,
but I hadn't seen him do
any physical comedy really,
which there was quite a lot
in The Whole Nine Yards.
But it became clear very soon
that he was good at it.
[horn honking]
-[Matthew grunts]
-[gasps] Oh.
One of the things I realized while working
with Matthew on The Whole Nine Yards
was, um, he was gonna be putting on
a comedy clinic.
Get the blinds.
[object squeaking]
[Jonathan] He would arrive
almost every morning
with the pages for the day in his hand,
saying, "Can we make this funnier here?"
"Would it be a good idea
if I said such and such?"
Because you can't write jokes like that.
I mean, you can't write,
"Matthew runs into the glass door."
[loud thud]
"Matthew runs into Big Mike."
-[loud thud]
-[glass shattering]
"Matthew sits in a chair
and kind of falls off."
[chair rattling]
I felt like he was my partner
on making the film work.
Much, much more than anybody else.
[upbeat music playing]
Bruce and various other members
of the cast and crew had a lot of parties.
I remember Matthew saying,
"You coming to Club Willis tonight?"
[elevator dings]
Bruce had the entire top floor,
just couches, bar, and a disco ball.
[upbeat music continues]
Castmates came to Club Willis,
as did local talent from strip clubs.
I was a fly on the wall.
And Matthew also had a sense of,
"Can you believe this is happening?"
[indistinct party chatter]
Bruce or Matthew would say
to a bartender, "I'll take a five."
And I remember saying, "What?"
"What is a five?"
That's the…
[soft melancholic music playing]
…amount of alcohol in the drink
before you add ice.
"Give me a seven." "Seven?" "Yeah."
[woman laughing]
[Kevin] Yeah. So I couldn't keep up.
[indistinct party chatter]
We were partying pretty hard
when we weren't working.
[chatter fades]
But the word "addiction"
was not really talked about at that point.
[René] I found out later
that he'd already been in rehab,
but he'd started drinking again.
It was an issue, but I don't know
that he was looking for answers…
at that time in his life.
[Jonathan] One day he came in
looking really terrible.
I thought Matthew was in denial
about his problem
with drinking and pills.
And I think it was like that
when we were shooting.
Like, he would keep it under control
as long as the work was going really well.
But if anything went wrong,
or he felt it wasn't working,
he would immediately turn
to alcohol or pills.
[melancholic music continues]
Of all the films I've made,
and there'd always been people
who drank too much, but…
this was different.
After we finished shooting,
we had a premiere of the film.
[reporter 1] This dark comedy
may be the breakout role
Perry has been looking for.
[camera clicks]
[Jonathan] It turned out the film was
top of the box office for three weeks.
[reporter 2] Bruce and Matthew went
the whole nine yards.
[David] He was getting
really good reviews.
People really wanted to see him.
I think he said,
"I'm officially now a movie star as well."
[Jonathan] Somebody told me recently,
Bruce had a bet with Matthew.
Bruce believed the film would be a flop.
And Matthew bet it would be a hit.
If Bruce lost, he would make
a guest appearance on Friends.
[sitcom underscore playing]
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Jonathan] That's why Bruce appeared
on Friends.
I'd like you to meet Phoebe, Monica,
and Chandler.
[in unison] Oh!
[mutters softly]
I get that a lot.
[audience laughs]
I just had to hope
that all the encouragement and enthusiasm
that Matthew was receiving
would prevent his problem
from getting any worse.
[fans clamoring]
Around seasons five, six, and seven,
we were starting to hear
that he was having a very hard time
managing his substance use
while also filming Friends.
[pensive music playing]
He didn't want people knowing
that he was on something.
So he would take just enough
to make him feel okay,
but not enough to appear high,
which was tricky,
especially the further along you get.
He would need to, like, manage
his withdrawal symptoms,
tremors and stuff between takes.
[Matthew] Once I had a drink,
I could not stop.
There was alcohol,
and there were other drugs
that I was taking to try to drink less.
I started hearing rumors that
Matthew had become challenging
and… and problematic.
-Will you marry me?
-[Monica sniffling]
[Jeff] And then his weight gain and loss.
Monica and I are engaged.
[audience cheering]
[Jeff] And I was worried about him.
[audience applauding]
That's when a lot of people kind of
realized there was something going on.
Well, obviously,
I saw a lot of his drinking.
[sniffling]
Well, I knew it was a problem, obviously.
And we obviously discussed it,
uh, frequently.
[sniffles] And I called his dad…
and I said, "You need to help him."
He's like, "You called my dad?"
I'm like, "Yeah, you need help."
[melancholic music playing]
[sniffles]
My response was always,
"I will take you any way you come."
[sniffles]
[crying] Until I couldn't.
Even though we stayed in contact…
[clicks tongue]
…we never got back together.
[Roger] After the sixth season of Friends,
Matthew started production
on another film,
Serving Sara.
[tense music playing]
I recall during that time
that it just seemed
like everything was very bad
when it came to his substance use.
Like, everyone was worried
all of the time.
[Matthew] I… I got into a serious problem
with painkillers,
a painkiller called, uh, Vicodin.
And that was mostly just to…
just to not drink as much as I was.
I was getting too hungover,
so I tried other things that would, uh…
that would try to balance… balance me out.
I got to a point on… on the movie
where things were getting
kind of dangerous,
and you have to shift your priorities.
I called my father, and I said,
"I'm done. I need to go get help."
His father went and got him,
uh, picked him up from the hotel.
[Mia] It was just the norm.
Like, if Matty's struggling, Dad goes.
It didn't matter
what was happening in life.
He would drop it in a second and show up.
[pensive music playing]
I think there was a lot of parts of Dad
that felt like
he really owed a lot to Matthew
for not getting to be there
when he was younger.
[switches clicking]
And they had to shut down production
for a while until Matt got, uh, you know,
worked out what… what he had going on.
There was an incredible amount of shame
and guilt that came along with that
because he knew how many people
were working on these shows,
that their livelihood was dependent on it.
[switches clicking]
He hated that he had to do that to people,
but he also knew that he had to get well.
[Matthew] I decided that I needed to,
uh, risk all the bad publicity,
I needed to leave the movie,
leave the TV show,
and I needed to go get help,
because I was worried about, uh…
You know, it got to the point where I was…
I was wondering if I was going to survive.
[upbeat news music sting]
Here are the latest entertainment stories
we're following.
All you need is Friends.
Well, Matthew Perry needs a little more.
The Friends actor has entered rehab again.
No word on what he's in for this time.
[foreboding music playing]
[Mia] In 2001, I visited him in rehab.
[traffic humming]
Like a family day.
We were all sitting
in like a big group together
and a lot of other people
who were there with their families.
At one point,
Matthew might've been sharing,
and I just started crying.
And I actually got up
and, like, ran out of the room
and, like, into like a closet
of some kind.
And just hyperventilating and crying
and really overwhelmed.
This was my… you know, my big brother,
my idolized big brother.
He was the most special person
on the planet.
[young Mia laughing]
[young Matthew] Okay.
[Mia] Whenever I got scared
or whenever I was crying…
[young Matthew] Let's get a close-up
on Maria's ear.
That's Maria's ear.
[Mia] …and he would immediately
make me start laughing.
He always just kind of came in
and, like, saved the day.
[young Matthew] This is
Maria Ishtar Perry.
Say something, uh, Miss Perry.
Or just smile.
[Mia] And so just seeing him suffering
and struggling,
I was really scared for him.
And then Matty came in and hugged me
and was like, "It's okay.
I'm all right. I'm gonna be okay."
Um, "You don't have to ever do this again
if you don't want to."
And I was like, "No, no, I wanna be here.
This is just a lot."
[Matthew] My world stopped,
and it needed to stop,
and I needed to focus on nothing
but sobriety.
[seagulls squawking]
The thing is, if I don't have, uh,
sobriety, I don't have anything.
I don't have a job.
Friends producers, I asked them
for the most time that they could give me.
Not even guaranteeing that I'd be back.
They shot around me.
The three executive producers
are… are wonderful.
[Mia] He was still in rehab
when Chandler and Monica get married
during season seven.
And I remember
he was coming back and forth from rehab.
-[switches clicking]
-[cheering and applause]
Both sides of the family came
to the filming to watch them get married.
It was a really big deal
because we're all worried about him.
We don't know
what's gonna happen in the future.
You know, to try to navigate relationships
while also battling
this crippling addiction is,
I mean, I would say, near impossible.
So I think the unspoken truth
that we all were sitting with
in some way or another was,
is this his wedding?
[poignant music playing]
I was on set, and I remember watching
Monica walk down the aisle.
And when Matthew said his vows to her,
the emotion in his eyes
and everything was so real.
Monica, I thought this was going to be
the most difficult thing I ever had to do.
But when I saw you walking down
that aisle, I realized how simple it was.
[Mia] Him and Courteney had
such a lovely relationship
and years working through this thing
that there was so clearly
actual love there,
platonic love, but love there, you know?
And, um, it's a happy memory
mixed with… with some sadness.
[camera clicks]
[faint cheering and applause]
Have you been in love?
I mean, have you been close to…
Yes, of course I've… I've been in love.
Yeah, I've been in love. I haven't, uh…
I've… I've met some amazing people.
I haven't…
-[Larry] No, but you wanna marry?
-I do. I think…
But I think in the last
maybe six or seven months of my life,
I've become a person that, uh…
that deserves somebody wonderful
and isn't scared of that anymore.
-[Larry] And you didn't before?
-No. I…
You know, I had this rather big dark cloud
hanging over me for most of my life.
And so you know--
-Are you in love with anyone now?
-Just you, my friend.
-That's a given.
-Yeah, just you.
[tense music playing]
[man] There's a thing in recovery
that's about one person
relating to another person
in a way that makes that person feel safe.
My name is Timothy Harrington.
Matthew and I, we were friends.
Yeah, dear friends.
[suspenseful music playing]
When I met Matthew in 2001,
I was…
hopeless.
My restaurant closed,
and… and just felt like
I was walking through mud.
[music intensifies]
I had gone to rehab a few years back,
so I'm very uncomfortable
even with the notion
of going back to AA meetings.
I feel like a failure.
I have a lot of shame.
And then somebody suggested
this other meeting.
So I walked up there, and I sat
in judgment row, which is the very back.
[indistinct chatter]
And there were famous folks there.
And so, one of those people was Matthew.
[music swells, fades]
And we started hanging afterwards.
[indistinct chatter]
One day we were
at California Pizza Kitchen,
and I'm starting to really stress out.
I don't see a future.
Um, I don't know that I cannot…
I can continue to go
without having another drink.
You know, my friends are still using.
You know, the guy I'm living with and…
I'm losing it.
I had nowhere else to go.
And I'm thinking,
"Get my stuff and just live in my car."
[firewood crackling]
And Matthew's like, "No, you're not."
And he's like, "You can go get your stuff,
but you're moving in with me."
[inhales, exhales deeply]
Wow, what a moment.
He saved my life right there
in that moment. I believe that.
[gentle music playing]
He tells me the address.
And I'm so embarrassed.
So I get out
what little stuff I have left,
and he comes to the door,
and he's like, "Welcome."
[laughing]
I'm like, "Okay."
[water flowing softly]
The entryway is so beautiful, it's water.
The first thing you see is the pool.
Big, giant windows.
It's just unbelievable.
Like, this is everything
I ever thought I wanted.
[tense music playing]
We lived together for about a year.
At first, I felt very self-conscious.
I'm, like, in this house with this person
who is still virtually a stranger.
But over time, I felt very comfortable.
-[camera clicking]
-We'd go to clubs…
[paparazzo] Enjoy the club tonight?
[Tim] …go watch music and play tennis,
go to premieres.
Then Friends would come back on,
and we'd go to tapings sometimes.
[director] And cut.
[Tim] Got to meet the cast,
which was really cool.
When I moved in,
they were in negotiations.
And one day, I'm sitting on the bed,
and he runs from his room,
which is directly across the hall,
and he jumps on the bed, and he screams,
"I just made $26 million,"
or something like that.
[reporter] The six actors
who star in the NBC comedy
signed a deal on Monday
that will earn each of them
an estimated $1 million per episode.
He was super excited
that they had actually pulled it off.
And I went, "Oh."
And I have nothing.
I have… I think I loaned him my last $20…
[laughs] …for valet
at some place the night before.
He was very happy, but he was still
struggling with his own stuff.
[soft piano music playing]
We'd go to three meetings a day, mostly.
["Drops of Jupiter" by Train playing]
We'd go every morning at 7:30
to West Hollywood
to the Log Cabin, a famous AA meeting.
It's been there for a long time.
And we would play
"Drops of Jupiter" by Train.
But tell me
Did you sail across the sun? ♪
Did you make it to the Milky Way… ♪
We would just play it a hundred times
on the way to a meeting.
Tell me, did Venus blow your mind? ♪
Was it everything you wanted to find… ♪
[Tim] And then we went to breakfast,
and then we went to the noon meeting.
Then we would discuss after that meeting
what our next meeting would be.
While you were looking for yourself
Out there ♪
[melancholic music playing]
Going to the meetings,
it was about putting out of our minds
the pain and the discomfort
and the struggle.
And when it got quiet,
that stuff would rise to the top.
[music swells]
We were together all the time.
And then, all of a sudden, he said,
you know, "You know, you gotta move out."
I was just like, "Oh."
I can feel it in my… in my gut.
It was a hard time.
It felt like a breakup.
The hanging out didn't stop,
but it was just different.
And it raised a red flag
that he may be planning for a relapse.
[melancholic music continues]
And when he really wanted to…
[inhales deeply]
…to vanish, he would.
[tense music playing]
I think we had, uh,
an inkling of when he was using
is when, you know,
we would text him or call him,
and he wouldn't text back.
And then Roger would go,
"Hey, have you heard from Matthew?"
And I would go, "No."
And he'd be like, "Okay."
Then, of course, when we all concur
we haven't talked to Matt,
the big worry sets in, and…
I will say there was a point there
where I was like,
"Let's tie him up." You know what I mean?
I didn't know.
I was, like, desperate for an answer.
His… his, um, like year anniversary
for getting sober
was always right around at my birthday.
And he never quite could make it a year.
[Roger] It's very hard to support somebody
when they're not calling you back,
or when they're, like,
kind of avoiding you.
I did wonder what else I could do.
[Tim] There was a resumption of use
at some point.
It was pretty bad.
And once he was stabilized,
it was wanting to necessarily
not dwell on it.
Like, move forward.
Like, "What's next?"
[dramatic music playing]
[Mia] During the time that Matty
was on Friends,
there were all these kind of ups and downs
that he was navigating.
But then the show was coming to an end
after ten years.
[narrator] After ten extraordinary years,
our best friends say goodbye.
-[switches clicking]
-[audience cheering and applauding]
[Mia] The last taping,
you could just see the emotion
on every single person on the set.
Adios, arrivederci, au revoir.
Take one. Five cameras.
As they were trying
to get through these lines,
everything became extremely real
in that moment.
[crying] This is harder
than I thought it would be.
[Mia] Matthew got to have
the last line of the whole show.
Okay, should we get some coffee?
Sure.
Where?
[audience laughing]
[Mia] There was just
this very, very deep companionship
between all of those actors,
as well as their characters.
[audience cheering and applauding]
[Mia] Like seeing them all come out…
[fan whistling]
…and just everybody's hugging and crying.
[applause continues]
[Mia] It was so emotional and so lovely.
[melancholic music playing]
Fifty-two million people
tuned in to the end of Friends.
It was a cultural event.
I'm losing my friends. It's really sad.
We've been watching every Thursday night.
I'll miss it. I'll miss it a lot.
[music fades]
[water flowing]
[Mia] I remember
when Matthew was done with Friends.
There was just this vast expanse of space
all of a sudden,
and not really knowing what's gonna
necessarily fill in that space.
And he was, like, hanging in that.
And, uh, I'm sure in some ways
it felt kind of freeing.
In other ways,
it probably felt kind of scary.
[water flowing]
Describe an average Saturday night.
Hmm.
-Saturday night, uh…
-[Kevin] Mm-hmm.
Killing time until alone with the porn.
[Kevin chuckles]
[crew members laughing]
I'll go to dinner with friends.
I'll go to a movie. But it's all just,
"When is that gonna happen?"
[Kevin laughing]
-Yeah.
-Let's move on. Do you wanna move on?
-Please.
-Okay.
[Kevin] Talk a little bit about Studio 60
and working with Sorkin.
[Matthew] Right after Friends,
there was, like, nothing funny.
I did a couple of independent movies.
It's more of a challenge for me
to nail a dramatic scene.
I'd really like to know
how I turned out this way.
And then Studio 60,
and I was thinking Studio 60
was the thing that would blow up.
[Roger] Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
He was excited about that
because that was an Aaron Sorkin show.
You know, he was really focused
on… on becoming…
you know, taking his artistry
to the next level.
My first time I met Matthew,
I'm pretty sure
it was during the Studio 60 table read.
[dramatic music playing]
I think I did have a sense of the stakes
of what Matt was carrying.
There was so much interest to be like,
"Oh, wow, we're gonna see Matt
tackle some dramatic stuff,
but also have an edge of funny," you know.
For Aaron Sorkin, this would have been
his big project after West Wing.
So there was so much focus and energy
on this project
that people were like,
"The show's gonna be huge."
NBC have their highest hopes set
on a drama called
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,
and it stars ex-Friend Matthew Perry.
Well, Bradley's in charge
of most of the comedy.
[Bradley snorts, laughs]
Basically, right now,
I'm dating Aaron Sorkin.
Great writer and damned
if he isn't a great kisser.
[Ellen] Oh!
There was so much pomp and excitement
for when it came on.
[Matthew] We're very hopeful for the show
to be successful
and on for a very long time.
The character in the pilot,
uh, was on Vicodin,
uh, because of back surgery.
You know, I've had my history with that,
and he's had his… his history as well.
They're both very separate histories,
but that just added
to my interest in the project.
I'm on a little Vicodin and some Percocet
and a steroid called Nortisone,
side effect of which is mania.
I swear to God,
it says so right on the bottle.
I was like, "Wow, that's so bold."
It shows how much I think
he was in the process
of not just confronting some of that,
but winning that battle in that moment.
[gentle music playing]
I do remember
it was about eight episodes in.
I had a couple extra scenes with Matt,
and that's when I felt like
we became friends.
He was like, "You're really doing good."
That was… that was really special.
It meant a lot to me.
You look good in that suit.
[chuckles awkwardly]
[tense music playing]
[Nate] But as we tried to find
our footing,
the numbers slowly fell.
Correct me if I'm wrong,
of course, that while doing it,
you had a sense of,
"We're doing really good work here."
-For the most part, yes.
-[Kevin] Right.
Uh, but it was tough, man,
because it was 16-hour days.
After episode five,
we already knew it wasn't working.
People weren't watching it,
and I was there from six in the morning
till ten o'clock at night.
Being motivated solely by,
"I can't look like an idiot,
so I've gotta work really hard."
You know, we were stuck in a show
that just didn't work.
At our craft table,
we had a wall that was covered
in all of the reviews
that we got for the pilot.
They were taped up on the wall.
I just remember watching the tape
sort of peel off…
[laughing]
…all those reviews,
and I'm like, "Oh man, I don't know
that we're gonna make it another season."
[laughing]
And then it was canceled. Yeah.
You know, it failed.
And it certainly wasn't out of a lack
of effort on any of our parts.
[tense music playing]
[Nate] I think Matt was frustrated.
Like, it was like, "How did this not go?"
Out of all the actors,
I think Matt was feeling that pressure.
[music fades]
Is there anything you're reading now
that you may do next?
Is there something…
What… what… what can we…
You know, I think the next thing for me
is… is I'm going to continue, uh, writing.
It's really fun to just, you know…
There's nothing there,
and then you think for a while,
and then there's something there,
you know.
[upbeat music playing]
A couple years after that,
I got a phone call,
and it was Matt.
And he said, "Hey, I, uh…
I wrote a role for you in a new show."
"It's gonna be called Mr. Sunshine."
He flat out said the sentence,
"Man, Nate, I'm gonna make you famous."
"I'm gonna… No, we're going to do this."
[David] Mr. Sunshine
was an ABC, uh, television show
about a sports arena.
And it was all the wacky characters
in the sports arena.
I remember
when Mr. Sunshine was picked up.
Matthew and I were at his house,
and he was on his phone.
I think he was talking to the network,
and I could just…
I only heard his side of the conversation.
He was just listening,
and he looks at me and goes… like that.
-Please welcome our good friend…
-Matthew Perry.
-Matthew Perry.
-Matthew Perry.
[audience cheering]
[Jon] You executive produced,
you created, you starred in,
you… you wrote the show.
This is your… this is your baby.
I did, I guess, the most…
self-serving thing a man can do.
-I created a television show for myself.
-[Jon laughs]
[bright music playing]
Matt, uh, asked me
if I wanted to be on Mr. Sunshine.
And I was like, "Really?
Am I gonna have to audition for it?"
Uh, "I mean, I gotta audition for it."
He goes, "No, I can make you…"
I go, "But am I gonna be an extra,
or am I gonna be part of the show,
have lines?"
He goes, "No, you'll have lines."
Question, what says "wow" to you the most?
-Eggshell or vintage ribbon?
-Vintage ribbon.
I was the maintenance guy for the arena.
[David] Matthew said,
"Hey, do you wanna be on Mr. Sunshine?"
I went, "Yeah, I do."
He goes, "All right."
"You're gonna be dressed up as a puma
almost the entire time."
And I'm like, "Cool."
But you know, happy for the gig, I guess.
[music continues]
So Dave would rarely have his head off.
He was just always walking through.
He was always, like, in it.
Like, he's like, "It's me."
I go, "Why don't you
just take it off sometimes?"
"Like, hold it off to the side like that."
I remember Nate being the sweetest guy.
Um, I'm like,
"How can you always be so happy?"
"Who is this person?"
On Mr. Sunshine,
I played Matt's assistant.
I don't think I can be your assistant.
I can't type, I can't work the phones,
and I'm not positive
I know what the internet is.
-Have you ever lit a man on fire?
-No.
You're my guy.
And that would have been when we started
having more conversations
where I was realizing he was actually,
like, targeting me as a human being
and saying, "I am going through something
in my life where I'm trying to do better."
"And you're someone
who I'm going to try to give back to."
[pensive music playing]
You know, with Mr. Sunshine,
we went for half a season.
And when he called to let us know
that the show was… was canceled,
he was so apologetic to me.
[breath trembling]
[crying] And he said,
"I'm just so sorry. I'm so sorry, man."
"I wanted to… I couldn't…
I couldn't get you there. I couldn't…"
And I… I just start… I was crying.
And, uh, I just had nothing
but… but thankfulness.
[chuckles] I was like,
"That's not your job, man"
[sniffles] "And you did so much."
But whatever he wanted that to…
the show to do for me,
I… I knew that he needed that
maybe more than I did.
And that would have been really
the first time I ever gauged…
[inhales deeply]
…like, quite honestly,
that being, like, stressful, frustrating,
ups and downs, you know.
You're always trying to reinvent yourself.
You're always…
It's just trying to continue to climb.
That's just overwhelming.
I think that the disappointment
of these shows not working after Friends
is also very tangled up in his health.
There was no way for him
to really know this,
but there was an assumption,
"If I were able to stay more well,
maybe some of these projects
would have… gone differently."
[melancholic music playing]
[Nate] Quickly after that,
he went back into… to rehab.
And he told me it was preventative.
[David] Listen, it was very sad
to see Matthew like that, um…
It was a helpless feeling
that I couldn't do more.
But we all realized
we really couldn't do more.
So you go through it with him.
You're supportive.
Uh, you help in other ways.
And, you know, you're there for him
if he reaches out.
But to his credit,
he was really trying to help himself.
He went to a lot of different rehabs.
[melancholic music continues]
[Roger] The one that hurt me the most
was he was the best man for my wedding.
[inhales deeply]
And, uh, he had to go to rehab.
This was in 2011 when I got married.
And he couldn't make it.
He wasn't even at my wedding.
I wasn't mad at him.
I was supportive of him,
and very happy he went.
And anytime he tried to do anything
to help himself, we were 100% gung ho.
But that was a hurtful…
Uh, that hurt me because, you know,
aside from my… my parents
and a couple of my best friends, he's…
I wanted him there
more than anybody else, you know?
[tense music playing]
[Nate] I don't know that I knew
the depths of what he was going through.
But it was
in this very specific point in his life
where I think maybe he would not call it
his most successful point of his career.
I think in hindsight, it was one
of his most successful points in his life
because of what he was trying to become
as… as a human being.
[uplifting music]
[Mia] That was around the time
where he started really realizing how much
he wanted to be helping other people.
It really started, you know, through AA
when he got to sponsor people.
And then, as time kind of went on,
he just got more and more interested
in things like drug court
or opening his own sober living,
and really trying to just do as much
as he can with the platform that he had
to be able to help
as many people as he could.
I'm Matthew Perry. It's drug court time.
Joining us, West Huddleston,
the CEO of the National Association
of Drug Court Professionals.
[West] My name is West Huddleston.
My relationship to Matty
is that I'm his pal
and kind of co-advocate
for alternatives to incarceration
for people with substance abuse problems.
That is fantastic.
[West] Matthew recognized
this is an area where he could really make
a huge difference.
Tonight, I wanted to talk about,
uh, alcoholism.
So I wanted to introduce myself
and say that my name is Matthew,
and I'm an alcoholic.
[upbeat music playing]
[West] He knew how to use his celebrity,
his brilliance, his charm
to get them to pay attention to this.
I want to point out, by the way,
that my pants
just look like they're unzipped.
But they're really zipped.
-[faint chuckling]
-It's just something…
There's a cut thing here, but it's really…
-[audience laughing]
-It's really zipped.
I just want you to know that.
[bell tolling]
[West] I remember one time
we were in London
spreading the gospel, so to speak,
of drug courts.
We had had a long day of meetings,
and then we have this interview
that night.
The actor and former addict,
Matthew Perry,
the journalist Peter Hitchens.
[West] Peter Hitchens decides
to attack Matthew
for making up this idea of addiction.
Why do you two believe in this fantasy
of addiction in which people lose--
-Fantasy of addiction?
-A complete fantasy.
People have problems with drugs and drink.
People like taking them,
and they don't want to stop taking them.
But it doesn't mean they have a disease
that needs to be treated.
And I've seen Matthew animated,
but I've never seen him angry.
I'm… I'm a drug addict.
I'm a person that if I have a drink,
I can't stop.
And so, it would be,
following your ideology,
that I'm choosing to do that.
That I'm choosing--
-That is my belief, yes, you do choose.
-It is, and…
You have a choice
over whether you drink or not.
But your book is the only book
in modern times that has this ideology.
So doesn't that teach you something?
It was almost as if Matthew was saying,
"You're not gonna talk about my people
like that."
[Matthew] Read something
other than your book.
Okay, all right, that's enough. Thank you.
[dramatic music playing]
[Mia] Matthew was very proud of himself.
[notifications beep]
I think that was a huge moment for him
to kind of step up
and really, um, show himself publicly
as somebody who can and does stand up
for what this disease is all about.
When he was sober,
there was no greater positive influence
on those who were suffering.
[tense music playing]
And in my own life experience,
when someone very close to me
was struggling,
I knew that he was the first person
that I would reach out to
for advice and assistance.
Almost like… his finding clarity
allowed him to be a superhero
in that fight for others.
But he couldn't fight as well for himself.
[melancholic music playing]
[Mia] It… Overall, the trajectory
of his addiction,
it was getting worse.
And that's kind of what we know
about that disease,
that it does get worse
the longer it goes along.
And so whether it was how much money
he was spending on rehab
or the amount of pills
he was taking every day, um,
to what the consequences were of him using
were escalating and escalating.
[melancholic music continues]
You know, he spent about $7 million
over his lifetime trying to get sober.
And that number is… is staggering.
It just paints a picture to me of overall
how seriously he took his disease
and how desperate he was to be sober.
I got the sense…
that he was just so frustrated
and angry and sad…
that he couldn't, um, beat it.
[Mia] As an adult,
I became very focused
on understanding and learning about
what my brother's disease was on my own.
And it became abundantly clear to me
that I wanted to become a therapist.
The first jobs I got
were in rehab centers.
I wanted to be a part
of what he was dealing with
and a part of getting him better.
That's when we started having
more of those in-depth conversations
about what is it
that's driving this thing.
You know, he became very good
at understanding
what this disease was like for him
and knowing how far he could push it
before it was like,
"Okay, I gotta go back to treatment."
I'm sure he felt that when he was working
on a project that he was excited about,
that was gonna help him stay sober.
While he was also maintaining
this very serious drug and alcohol problem
and going in and out of rehab,
Matthew Perry was working steadily,
making movies.
And he had several series.
It's just kind of… it boggles the mind
that he was able to do as much as he did.
He was always spinning hard
on his projects.
[keyboard clacking]
[Mia] The End of Longing is a play
that Matthew wrote in 2015.
It's about addiction, it's about
getting sober and what… what that takes.
And to me, it's… it's his masterpiece.
[dramatic music playing]
Matthew Perry, this is
kind of a life milestone for you,
in that you have written a play.
I did. I wrote a play
called The End of Longing
that's gonna be at the Playhouse Theatre
and opening on February 11th.
And I'm very excited about it.
And you've said that
it's not autobiographical in any way.
And yet the character you play
is a lot of you.
Well, I play a drunk.
-Okay.
-[audience laughing]
[woman chuckling]
-So…
-[audience laughing]
[Graham cackling]
It's a slightly exaggerated form
of myself.
-[Graham] Yes.
-Were you an alcoholic at one time?
-I still am.
-[audience laughing]
-Not really?
-Well, yes.
-I don't think you ever stop.
-No, you always are.
I'm a recovering alcoholic.
I'm glad we're talking about this.
-[audience laughing]
-[Graham chuckling]
[Mia] The play went up in London
in the West End.
[Matthew] I'm very nervous
about opening night
because I'm starring in it and wrote it,
so I'm sort of wearing two hats.
[indistinct chatter]
[Mia] Matthew flew out the whole family
to London to support him.
[pensive music playing]
And it just, oh my God,
his performance of it was unbelievable.
It's so personal.
The closing monologue
is Matthew standing downstage,
giving his first intro talk
at an AA meeting.
[music swells]
"I want a drink so fucking badly
it hurts."
"It hurts everywhere."
"I need to make the pain go away."
"I need to make the feelings go away."
"I don't like feeling."
"Feelings hurt."
"And alcohol just washes them away."
"It gives me confidence."
"It builds me up."
-[page flips]
-"I'm at the end of my rope."
"When I'm not drinking, there is nothing
but this blackness and despair."
"And I can't take it anymore.
I just can't fucking take it."
"I'm nothing. I'm nothing.
And I need to be something."
It's just him looking outward,
you know, breaking the fourth wall,
looking out at the audience,
just saying, like, "Please, help me."
"Please. Someone help."
[tense music playing]
[audience applauding]
[Jonathan] It went rather well
with the audience.
It was brave and honest
and well-constructed.
I think it's quite a good play.
[Mia] It really took a lot out of him
to do that play.
Afterward, he was always
pretty annihilated, honestly.
[interviewer] Congratulations
on your playwriting debut.
Thank you. My audiences have been…
"My audiences?"
-[chuckles]
-The audiences have been wonderful.
-We've been getting standing ovations.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-Is it cathartic playing that role?
Uh, it's been
a little bit cathartic, yeah.
I wasn't necessarily going to play Jack.
Um, but I ended up playing him.
But they're very different.
It's not autob… autobiographical.
[Jonathan] After the show, my wife and I
went backstage to see Matthew.
But Matthew was…
[exhales deeply]
I don't know what his mental state was
at that point.
He didn't seem to be
the man I used to know.
We had a little chat,
and we told him we liked the play.
He was subdued and not very communicative.
[music swells]
[Mia] In London,
we went out to dinner by ourselves,
and I was just like,
"Hey, what's going on? You seem off."
Like, what are you…
And he was like,
"I'm under so much pressure."
"I'm dealing with this."
"No, I'm not using. Everything's fine."
Like a back-off kind of, um, feel to it,
which was hard for me to take.
I like… I… I felt a little hurt.
And it was kind of one of the only times
that we had a hard conversation
where like, "Oh, this didn't just feel
smooth and easy."
"This felt kind of like
something's off here."
[Jonathan] I felt I was looking at
the wreckage of what could have been
an extraordinarily successful career
and a very happy man.
[melancholic music playing]
But…
[clicks tongue]
But, you know, he was a…
he was a prisoner of his addiction.
[camera clicks]
[camera clicks]
[music fades]
Oh God. Okay. I've never read this before.
This is an interlude,
and it's called Trauma Camp.
[reflective music playing]
"There is such a thing as Trauma Camp,
and yes, I've attended,
and yes, I made up that name."
He did not make up that name.
We all called it that.
"It was in Florida. Where else?"
"I spent 90 days there,
opening up the trauma of my life
and reliving it, scene by scene."
"I did it in a group setting."
"Others reciprocated their traumas
until everyone was fainting
and puking and shaking."
That actually did happen.
Someone threw up and then fainted into it.
"Basically, you're supposed to feel
everything, and release it,
and then learn how to make it a story,
not a living thing in your soul,
so that it no longer has dominion over you
the way that it did."
-[music stops abruptly]
-"Oh, and you're supposed to cry."
Yeah.
That cadence, that humor, that ability,
you know, the… the exact timing of it,
like, it's just very him, you know?
And I have just never read it before, so…
[inhales softly]
[gentle music playing]
My name is Evie.
And by the time I was 19 years old,
Xanax was the love of my life.
So a couple of days
before Thanksgiving 2017,
I went to a concierge treatment facility.
And one day,
there was, like, a lot of buzz.
And I do just recall it being like,
"Somebody famous is here."
And then it started trickling in
that it was Matthew Perry.
And I think that he had an air about him,
especially in the beginning,
where it's like, he knows that you know
that he's Matthew Perry,
and, like, you're gonna do the thing,
and he's gonna have to…
And he was gracious,
especially for someone who's clearly like…
He was clearly in physical pain,
um, coming off of his detox.
[music fades]
So he was coming off benzos, as was I.
And he was, like,
telling one of the people,
like, "I need you to tell the nurses
to stop stepping down my Ativan taper."
And they were like,
"That's not how that works."
"You're in rehab."
Or he was like, "Did you try telling them
I was on Friends?"
[laughing]
Yeah, that was…
His… his timing was phenomenal.
We had a very similar humor.
He was sarcastic. I was sarcastic back.
I'm like, "Yeah, we can do this.
We can go."
"I don't care. I was born in 1997.
You're not that big of a deal to me."
And I think that that's probably the only
reason he took any kind of liking to me.
We would sit out at the smoking tent
and talk about art, talk about music.
He started to just feel like a friend.
And we couldn't have our phones,
but we all had those, like,
old iPod Classics
with, like, the big,
aesthetically pleasing wheel
that would click when you scrolled it.
And we listened to a lot of ballads,
I think as a way
to communicate vulnerability
without actually, like,
having to be vulnerable.
So he could play a song about
how, like, sad and alone he felt,
but I'm not sure he could have,
or would have, articulated that
as plainly as the song did.
I remember he was listening to this song,
"I Took a Pill in Ibiza" by Mike Posner,
the not-remixed version,
like the sad, slow one.
But you don't wanna be high like me ♪
Never really knowing why like me ♪
You don't ever wanna step off
That rollercoaster and be all alone ♪
You don't wanna ride the bus like this ♪
Never knowing who to trust like this ♪
All my friends are all gone
But there's manicured lawns ♪
And the people still think I'm a star ♪
It's just as sad now as it was then.
[melancholic music playing]
I think it's hard when you can't say,
"I'm struggling."
He did not feel that it was okay to say
that he wasn't doing well.
I think shame is at the center
of all of this.
Couple that with the resources
to get whatever you want,
couple that with the resources
to have people around you
that are gonna let you do
whatever you want.
I think that that's a perfect storm.
[music swells]
[Mia] I think at the end of trauma camp,
he was really raw.
He was exhausted.
I think he was proud of himself
for the work that he had done.
But my memory is telling me that that…
that might've been when he was starting
to kind of slip away a little bit,
in terms of being in contact.
[Matthew] I had people around me
that were telling me to stop.
I had people around me that,
you know, say,
"You're going to kill yourself
if you keep going like this."
And I just didn't know… I didn't know how.
[tense music playing]
One day, my cell phone rings,
and it's a number I don't recognize
from Los Angeles.
And for whatever reason,
I just decided to pick it up.
And there's just absolute chaos
on the other line of the phone.
[music swells]
His sober companion at the time,
she's like, "Maria, this is really bad.
I don't know what's gonna happen."
And I was like, "Oh, okay. Oh my God."
She goes, "They whisked him away
to surgery. I don't know what's going on."
And then she throws the cell phone,
I guess, over to this doctor.
And I was like, "Do whatever you need."
"Just do whatever to keep him alive.
I don't know what's going on."
And he's like, "Okay." And hung up.
[foreboding music playing]