George Clooney reveals his longtime friend Matthew Perry ‘wasn’t happy’ making his mega-hit sitcom Friends: ‘It didn’t bring him any joy’
George Clooney opens up about his longtime friend Matthew Perry and his untimely and tragic death.
Clooney, 62, was promoting his new film The Boys In the Boat – in theaters on Christmas Day – when he opened up about his friend in a Deadline interview.
The actor and director revealed that he had known Perry, who was 54 at the time of his tragic death, since he was 16 and that they were old friends.
He also admitted that Perry’s breakout role on the sitcom Friends “didn’t bring him joy, happiness or peace.”
‘He wasn’t happy. It didn’t bring him joy, happiness or peace,” Clooney said during the interview, adding that starring in a sitcom was literally his biggest dream.
George Clooney opens up about his longtime friend Matthew Perry and his untimely and tragic death
The actor and director revealed that he had known Perry, who was 54 at the time of his tragic death, since he was 16 and that they were old friends.
‘I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid,” Clooney said.
“He was a kid and all he said to us, I mean me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, I just want to be on a sitcom, man. I just want to be in a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth. And he performed probably one of the best ever,” Clooney said.
Clooney and Perry both rose to fame at the same time, with both Clooney’s ER and Perry’s Friends debuting in 1994, both airing on Thursday nights, and Clooney adding that they were “side by side on the soundstage.”
“And when we saw that happen in the parking lot – we were at Warner Brothers, we were sitting right next to each other – it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through his mind,” Clooney admitted.
“We just knew he wasn’t happy and I had no idea what he was doing, twelve Vicodin a day and all those things he talked about, all those heartbreaking things,” Clooney added, referring to Perry’s book Friends, Lovers 2022. and the big terrible thing.
“And it also tells you that success, money and all those things don’t just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life,” Clooney said.
Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of both Friends and ER, with Clooney reminiscing on the pickup’s impact.
‘They took us upstairs. They picked us up Thursday evening at ten o’clock, and Thursday evening at nine o’clock. Those were the Cradle of Love eras because Seinfeld was there and we knew it. We all knew it,” Clooney said.
‘I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid,” Clooney said
“We knew that this was the time slot that we knew it would take us a year to do anyway, if people would like to show it. We were backstage and there were six of us and six of us,” he added, referring to the casts of both shows who were present at the 1994 NBC advance presentation.
“We knew that this was the time slot that we knew it would take us a year to do anyway, if people would like to show it. We were backstage and there were six of us and six of us,” he added, referring to the casts of both shows who were present at the 1994 NBC advance presentation.
“For us, it was Noah Wyle and Tony Edwards and Eriq LaSalle and Sherry Stringfield, and Julianna Margulies, and myself. And for them it was their six and we were all sitting backstage and none of us were stars except Tony Edwards was the most famous person and Courteney Cox,” he said.
“They were the two people that everyone knew, and the rest of us were kind of unknowns. They showed a trailer for both shows. And then we got on stage. And I remember thinking at that moment: this is a very special moment. It ended up being one of those crazy things, I can’t explain it. Two weeks after we debuted, we were on the cover of Newsweek. “After that, everything changed for us,” he said.
Friends lasted 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, with Perry appearing on the show for its entire run, while ER ran for 15 seasons, although Clooney left after season 5, although he did return for a season 6 episode and the series finale in 2009.