Matthew Perry Revealed ‘Friends’ Cast ‘Penguin’ Bond: ‘When One Is Sick or Injured, the Others Surround It and Prop It Up’
Former Friends star Matthew Perry sat down with ABC News’s Diane Sawyer to discuss his autobiography Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing in October 2022. In his interview, he shared his special bond with his Friends costars. Perry stated they knew what to do when a group member was hurting. He equated their reaction to how penguins instinctively protect each other in the wild.
The ‘Friends’ cast helped Matthew Perry during some difficult challenges
In an interview with Diane Sawyer, Matthew Perry spoke of his decades-long addictions to drugs and alcohol. Before and while filming Friends, he went through periods where he drank excessively. He became addicted to pain pills after injuring himself on the set of the 1997 film Fools Rush In.
However, no matter whatever personal challenges Perry experienced, he always had the support of his Friends‘ castmates. Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow huddled around their castmate, with Perry likening their support to penguins protecting one of their own.
“They were understanding, and they were patient,” he said in an interview that aired exactly one year before he died. “It’s like penguins.”
He explained, “In nature when one is sick or very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up and walk around until that penguin can walk on its own. And that’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
The ‘Friends’ cast kept a loving eye on Matthew Perry as he battled his addictions
To The New York Times, Matthew Perry recalled when Jennifer Aniston visited him at his trailer on the Friends set. The cast worked together for 10 seasons of the NBC series from 1994-2004, and Perry played the neurotic, sarcastic, and lovable Chandler Bing.
He told the outlet that Aniston came to his trailer and said, “in a kind of weird but loving way,” that the cast knew he was drinking again. “I know you’re drinking,’ she said,” he wrote.
“I had long since gotten over her – ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine – and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating. And I was confused.”
On a separate occasion, the cast confronted Perry in his dressing room. They tried valiantly to help keep him on track when it came to his sobriety and rallied around him when he wasn’t sober.
Aniston told Perry about how they found out about his drinking habits. “‘We can smell it,’ she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer,” he recounted. “‘I know I’m drinking too much,’ I said, ‘but I don’t exactly know what to do about it.’”
The ‘Friends’ cast was ‘utterly devastated’ by Matthew Perry’s unexpected death
After battling his addictions for decades, Matthew Perry embraced sobriety. In October 2022, just before his memoir was published, Perry said he had been sober for 18 months.
However, on Oct. 28, 2023, Matthew Perry was found unresponsive in his hot tub at home in Los Angeles. He died at the age of 54.
The actor’s Friends co-stars released a joint statement regarding Matthew Perry’s death. It was published by People Magazine.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew; we were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer said in the statement.
“There is so much to say. But right now, we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
The statement concluded, “In time, we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
How to get help: In the U.S., contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration helpline at 1-800-662-4357.
