The light at the end of the tunnel. For years, Matthew Perry has been making fans laugh. Most known for his role as Chandler Bing in Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004, Perry has never shied away from opening up about his struggles.
“When [fame] happens, it’s kind of like Disneyland for a while. For me it lasted about eight months, this feeling of ‘I’ve made it, I’m thrilled, there’s no problem in the world.’ And then you realize that it doesn’t accomplish anything, it’s certainly not filling any holes in your life,” he told The New York Times in 2002, one year after getting sober. “I didn’t get sober because I felt like it. I got sober because I was worried I was going to die the next day.”
He noted in the profile that he was similar to Chandler in a way, as he, too, tried to hide behind the jokes. “It’s no accident that Chandler is a guy who is trying to deter his own human emotional feelings with laughter. That’s what I did for years,” Perry explained. “I’ve tried to palm myself off as being a jokester, kind of like hanging out with me is kind of like a vacation. But that could only take me so far.”
The Whole Nine Yards actor’s addiction began after a jet ski accident in 1997, when he became addicted to Vicodin. That eventually led to alcohol abuse — so much so that he was often hungover at work.
”I had this odd rule that I would never drink on a set,” the Serving Sara star said. “But I went to work in extreme cases of hangover. It’s so horrible to feel that way and have to work and be funny on top of that.”
In 2000, he was hospitalized with pancreatitis due to alcohol abuse. The West Wing alum recalled often shaking and sweating on set afterward while going through detox. The season 6 finale, “The One with the Proposal,” aired in May 2000. The season 7 premiere, “The One With Monica’s Thunder,” aired five months later. However, the story line picked up in the same day, causing fans to notice how much Perry’s appearance had changed during the hiatus.
Although he finally asked for help the next year, he still had a long road to recovery. Scroll down for the full timeline:
A Vicodin addiction led to a heavy amount of drinking. Perry entered rehab for the first time in 1997, spending 28 days at the Hazelden center in Minnesota. He only briefly stayed sober.
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In May 2000, the 17 Again star was hospitalized for two weeks for alcohol-related pancreatitis. By fall of that year, he was detoxing on the Friends set. His appearance drastically changed during the hiatus between seasons 6 and 7.
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In February 2001, with less than two weeks left of filming Serving Sara, Perry finally decided to ask for help and production paused for two months. "Everything's clear for one split second," he recalled to The New York Times. "I realized I've got to go save myself. I got on the phone and called the people who were willing to help me."
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After two and a half months in a private rehab center, Perry finally was able to finish Serving Sara and return to Friends, as well as focus on bettering himself. In 2002, he did a number of interviews, explaining his road to recovery and finally getting to a good place.
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"I’m making plans to go away for a month to focus on my sobriety and to continue my life in recovery,” Perry said in a statement in 2011. "Please enjoy making fun of me on the World Wide Web."
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Two years later, the Massachusetts native opened up the Perry House, a sober living home for men in Malibu. “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life and a lot of wonderful accolades,” he told The Hollywood Reporter of his journey two years later. "The best thing about me is that if an alcoholic comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me stop drinking?’ I will say, ‘Yes. I know how to do that.'"
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In 2018, the Go On alum spent three months in the hospital and underwent surgery to repair a gastrointestinal perforation.
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After being delayed a year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the cast of Friends reunited for the first time on screen in 17 years.
“He was great. People can sometimes just be unkind. I wish they weren't," Ben Winston, who directed the Friends: The Reunion, said of those commenting on Perry's appearance during the HBO Max special. "I loved working with him. He’s a brilliantly funny man and I thought he had some great one-liners in the show. I felt just happy and lucky to be in his presence and directing him on something like this."
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