Matthew Perry reveals he was driven back to rehab in pickup truck after filming Chandler and Monica wedding
MALIBU, CALIFORNIA: Matthew Perry, best known for his unforgettable performance as Chandler Bing in the classic television sitcom 'Friends', has been frank and honest about his battle with addiction. In his latest memoir titled 'Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing', the 53-year-old actor opened up about the struggles he faced during the ordeal.
In the book, Perry cited one incident where his character Chandler was getting married to Monica Geller, a role played by Courteney Cox. This scene is regarded as one of the fan favorites. However, Perry, who was struggling with addiction at that time, shared that he was actually living in a rehab facility behind the scenes. Perry claimed that Marta Kauffman and David Crane, the show's writer and producer, had asked him if he was willing to return to film the wedding scene. Perry had already told them that he was sober, but his father had no intention of keeping his cool as he replied by yelling at them and threatening to "pull (Perry) off your television show."
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Perry remembered being transferred from the rehab center he was residing into the Promises treatment facility in Malibu, where he was informed he would need "months" more to rehabilitate. He wrote, "Two weeks later, I was driven to the set of 'Friends' by a technician from Malibu. When I arrived, Jen Aniston said, 'I've been mad at you.'"
"'Honey,' I said, 'if you knew what I'd been through, you would not be mad at me,'" Perry said, adding, the two "hugged," and he "got the work done." He wrote, "I married Monica and got driven back to the treatment center — at the height of my highest point in 'Friends,' the highest point in my career, the iconic moment on the iconic show — in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician."
Perry wrote, "Not all the lights were green on Sunset that night, let me tell ya." In other parts of the book, Perry recounted that after filming the "Friends" finale in 2004, he "felt nothing" despite his co-stars "sobbing" all around him.
Perry claims to be using buprenorphine, a "detox med" that is meant to ease opioid addicts' withdrawal. He said that after the final scene was over and a crew member yelled, "That's a wrap! Tears sprang from almost everyone's eyes like so many geysers. We had made 237 episodes, including this last one, called, appropriately enough, 'The Last One.'"
"Aniston was sobbing — after a while, I was amazed she had any water left in her entire body. Even Matt LeBlanc was crying. But I felt nothing. I couldn't tell if that was because of the opioid buprenorphine I was taking, or if I was just generally dead inside," Perry wrote.
