In his gripping new memoir "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," Matthew Perry has been candid about his previous substance use, his relationships and the support that helped him get sober.
Despite his openness on the page, the actor said in an interview with GQ that he believes most of his "Friends" co-stars won't be reading the book.
While Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe, wrote the book's introduction, Perry said he doesn't think the cast won't "really care" to read the memoir.
"Why would they read it? I don't know," Perry told GQ. "Because, you know, who cares? Addicts are going to care about this, and fans of 'Friends' are going to care about this. But the cast is not going to really care about this."
Perry told GQ that while he was using drugs and alcohol, "everybody" in the cast of "Friends" "knew" what was going on.
"Jennifer Aniston took me aside once and said 'We know you're drinking,'" Perry said. "And I said, 'How do you know?' And she said 'We can smell it.'"
Perry said that the interaction didn't stop him from using substances. In the memoir, he wrote that his journey with addiction was often visible on "Friends."
"My weight varied between 128 pounds and 225 pounds during the years of 'Friends,'" Perry wrote. "You can track the trajectory of my addiction if you gauge my weight from season to season — when I'm carrying weight, it's alcohol; when I'm skinny, it's pills. When I have a goatee, it's lots of pills."
In an October interview with People magazine, Perry said that being on "Friends" during this time "saved" him.
"(My castmates) were understanding, and they were patient. It could be said that (doing the show) saved me,” he told the magazine in advance of the book’s release.
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