Matthew Perry on how 'Friends' helped him through serious addiction problem: It 'saved me'

Known for his portrayal of the sarcastic Chandler Bing on “Friends,” Matthew Perry peeled back the curtain on his three-decade addiction struggles in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” The book was published one year before the actor's sudden death on Oct. 28, 2023.

Perry’s addiction was with him during “Friends,” but he shared that his castmates provided a beacon of hope for him during his dark times in an exclusive interview with People.

“They 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.

Perry was 24 when he landed the role of Chandler, a part he would play for the duration of the hit show’s decade-long run that ended in 2004. When he got the part, his alcohol addiction was just starting, but it was only the beginning of his troubles.

“If you gauge my weight from season to season — when I’m carrying weight, it’s alcohol; when I am skinny, it’s pills. When I have a goatee, it’s lots of pills,” he wrote in his book, which came out Nov. 1, 2022.

He told People he initially had a handle on his addiction.

“I could handle it, kind of, but by the time I was 34, I was really entrenched in a lot of trouble,” he said, while noting he reached a point where he would take 55 Vicodin a day and weighed 128 pounds.

By the time his memoir was published, Perry had gone to rehab 15 times and undergone 14 surgeries related to his addiction. He once went to the hospital when his colon burst.

“The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live. That’s the time I really came close to my life ending,” he said.

In 2021'’s “Friends” reunion, Perry opened up about the stress he felt to perform while on the show.

“To me, I felt like I was going to die if they didn’t laugh,” he said.

“If I didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get, I would freak out,” he added.

He also opened up about how his addiction affected his time on “Friends."

“I don’t remember three years of it,” he said in 2016 on BBC Radio 2’s “The Chris Evans Breakfast Show.”

“A little bit of the time, I was a little out of it, yeah,” he added.

Perry said sharing his experiences in his memoir could potentially help others who may need it.

“My hope is that people will relate to it and know this disease attacks everybody,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re successful or not, the disease doesn’t care.”

This article was originally published on TODAY.com