Matthew Perry will remove Keanu Reeves's name from memoir after slamming 'John Wick' actor twice in the book
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: ‘Friends’ actor Matthew Perry is all set to take Keanu Reeves’s name away from his memoir ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing’ after panning the ‘John Wick’ actor several times in the book. The memoir which was released in 2022 details the 53-year-old actor’s struggle with addiction and alcoholism.
Speaking candidly to Matt Brennan in the ‘Los Angeles Times Festival of Books’, the ‘Serving Sara’ star said, “I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” before adding, “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”
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“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize. It was just stupid,” said the ‘Beverly Hills, 90201’ actor, as reported by Los Angeles Times.
What did Matthew Perry write in the book?
The ‘17 Again’ star, who was a self-professed addict, wrote in his memoir, "River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out." Talking about his co-star from the 1988 film ‘A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon’, River Phoenix, Perry wrote, "It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” reports Variety. Phoenix died from an overdose in 1993 when he was just 23.
In another instance, while talking about the death of actor Chris Farley in December 1997, ‘The Odd Couple’ star mentioned ‘The Matrix’ actor Reeves again. Perry wrote, “His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin’, a fear we did not share),” before continuing, “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us. I had to promote ‘Almost Heroes’ two weeks after he died; I found myself publicly discussing his death from drugs and alcohol. I was high the entire time.”
Did Matthew Perry apologize to Keanu Reeves?
In October, prior to the book’s release, Perry indeed issued an apology to Reeves through Deadline. “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu,” Perry said in the statement and added, “I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
What was Keanu Reeves’s reaction?
After the book’s release on November 1, 2022, an insider source told Us Weekly, “Keanu thought the comments came out of left field,” before adding, “It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize.” Reeves, however, did not comment directly on the issue.
‘I can’t watch the show’
Elsewhere, the ‘Friends’ alum said that he cannot watch the hit show because it brings back memories of his alcoholism and drug addiction, “I can’t watch the show, because I was brutally thin and being beaten down so badly by the disease.” He also revealed that he clearly remembers which substance he was using during which season, “I could tell season by season by how I looked, and I don’t think anybody else can, but I certainly could,” before adding, “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,” reports New York Post.