Matthew Perry may have starred in 10 seasons of “Friends,” but he didn't watch the show after filming, he said last November — a year before his death Oct. 28.
Perry, 54, played Chandler Bing in the beloved NBC sitcom from 1994 to 2004.
In an interview with radio host Tom Power in Toronto, Perry explained that it’s difficult for him to watch old “Friends” episodes because they remind him of his struggles with drug and alcohol addiction.
“I didn’t watch the show and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine,’” he said, gesturing as if to point to himself in different episodes over the years.
“I could tell season by season by how I looked,” he continued. “I don’t think anybody else can, but I certainly could, and that’s why I don’t want to watch it, because that’s what I see, that’s what I notice when I watch it.”
It's something Perry opened up about in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
“If you gauge my weight from season to season — when I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I am skinny, it’s pills,” he wrote. “When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills.”
The actor shared with People that he has been to rehab 15 times and has suffered serious health consequences from his addiction over the years, including a burst colon caused by opioid overuse.
In October 2022, he told The New York Times that he had marked 18 months of sobriety.
While it can be difficult for Perry to look back at his time on the show, he said in his recent interview in Toronto that he might consider re-visiting the beloved sitcom.
"I think I’m going to start to watch it because it really has been an incredible — first of all, it was an incredible ride — but it’s been an incredible thing to watch it touch the hearts of different generations,” he said.
“It was really funny, and all the people were nice,” he added. “I’ve been too worried about this and, you know, I want to watch ‘Friends,’ too.”