Matthew Perry was devastated when his co-star Jennifer Aniston confronted him about his drinking issue on the Friends set.
Aniston was also the first to learn of his drinking issues, disguised them at all costs, and never showed up to the Friends movie set intoxicated.
“‘I know you’re drinking. We can smell it , says Aniton ‘. ‘Yeah, I’m drinking too much, but I don’t know exactly what to do about it,’ the actor writes in the book.
Perry’s book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” released on Tuesday, detailed his rise to fame and his lengthy struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction.
Perry was only utterly sober for a “Friends” season, according to Perry, during season nine. It was also the only time he was nominated for an Emmy for best actor in a comedy. According to Perry, “I was never high when I was working.”
If you monitor my weight from season to season, you can see the progression of my addiction: when I’m overweight, it’s drinking; when I’m lean, it’s medications. Perry said there are many drugs when I have a goatee.
When Perry was 30 years old, he had pancreatitis, and he spent “30 days and nights” in the hospital receiving fluids through an IV. After receiving “regular dosages” of the painkiller Dilaudid, the actor claimed that it swiftly became his “new favorite drug.”
Perry said he started taking Vicodin and drinking once discharged from the hospital. Everyone realized that something needed to be done when he returned for the upcoming season of “Friends,” he said.
Perry said that one day, Aniston, who he previously had a crush on, went to his trailer and told him, “I know you’re drinking.”
To be faced by Jennifer Aniston was painful. I had long since moved over her; ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was good and had figured out precisely how long to gaze at her without it being weird. And I was devastated.
Perry wrote in his autobiography that he would require a driver to take him to set since he “never worked high, but I certainly worked hungover.”
The actor claimed that despite viewers being aware of his addictions, the show’s success was too great for his bad habits to interfere with it.
