According to what Matthew Perry reveals in the feature article of this week’s issue of PEOPLE, he was just 24 years old, and a guy is seeking recognition when he was initially cast as Chandler Bing on Friends. He believed that stardom would solve all of his problems at the time. To clarify, I was online nonstop.
But today, in an appearance in which he discusses his new biography Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry, 53, focuses on his path and the problematic habit he attempted to keep hidden. The conversation was conducted to talk about the book. He said, “I assumed that being humorous at all times was how I would overcome it.” I believed that [Friends] would solve all of our problems. The answer is no.
Perry admits that he had a crush on Jennifer Aniston that began when they first met two years before the program started, and he says that this revelation comes as part of his opening up about his cast mates and the friends who were essential in his path.
He jokes that she displayed such a high level of apathy that it led him to end the relationship. Everyone has most likely worked it out. I have never made any statements. I, however, hid it. But then she got married to Brad Pitt, and at that point, I said to myself, I don’t have much of a chance here.
Around the same time, Perry’s dependence on alcohol was also becoming more entrenched. According to him, he initially believed that he would be able to cope with it. When I was 34 years old, though, I had already gotten into significant trouble.
That was very alarming at one point; the actor had gained 128 pounds and was taking 55 Vicodin daily. He says that he had no idea how to end it, mainly because both the sickness and the addiction were progressing. So it becomes progressively worse as you get older.