When sitcom fans had to choose between ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Friends’ in the mid-nineties, some of us asked ourselves: Do we have to choose? In other words: it was natural to feel the same sympathy for George Costanza and a neurotic like him. Chandler Bingalthough it is the second Disgustingly young, attractive and charismatic.
Matthew Perry came from almost nothing (Episodic roles in “The Problems Grow,” “Sense of Living” or “Keep Dreaming”) and suddenly a little hesitation in the role of Chandler was all most of us needed to make us laugh. He knew how to take it to stratospheric heights a mixture of deep distrust and relentless sarcasmthe second is a simple shell for the first. His comic timing was always impeccable.
For a decade, between 1994 and 2004, Perry/Chandler starred as Matt LeBlanc’s (even more) scatterbrained Joey, David Schwimmer’s (even more) lost Ross, Courteney Cox’s perfectionist Monica. , a combination of Jennifer with impulsive Rachel Aniston and Lisa Kudrow with neo-hippie Phoebe. worked at a explosive perfection and insisted on setting the bar very high for guaranteed laughs per episode in a sitcom. The players were aware of their power and impossible popularity; They earned one million dollars per episode in the ninth and tenth seasons.
addiction problems
That ninth season was the only one filmed during a period of complete sobriety, as Perry explains in her 2022 book ‘Friends, Lovers and This Is So Scary’, which chronicles her problems with alcohol and opioids. He started drinking when he was fourteen and noticed signs of alcoholism at twenty-one.. In the late nineties, he became addicted to Vicodin after consuming it to ease the pain of a jet ski accident. At some points in his life, he had fallen into simultaneous consumption of methadone, Xanax, cocaine, and nearly a liter of vodka a day. It fell in 2019 eat for a few weeks after your colon bursts Due to opioid abuse.
He had been sober for a year and a half when he wrote this autobiography. seven million dollars for treatment and detox programs. Along the way, he had lost the ability to enjoy all or almost all aspects of his life, as he explains: this anhedonia is a side effect of Suboxone, a drug used to treat narcotic addiction.
Not just Chandler
He finished the series given to him interplanetary famePerry He had no problems finding a job., but new series with the same resonance: ‘Studio 60’ (Aaron Sorkin’s creation), ‘Mr. Despite their attention, Sunshine and ‘Go on’ did not last long on the air; The ‘remake’ of ‘The Odd Couple’ did better, but didn’t quite live up to it. We also saw him in ‘The Good Wife’ and later as the elusive lawyer Mike Kresteva in ‘The Good Fight’.
In the film section, he managed to sell tickets with ‘Falsas Appearances’ or, above all, ’17 Again’; In this movie, he was a 37-year-old man who woke up one day in his younger self. Zac Efron. In the theatre, he wrote and starred in the play ‘The End of Longing’, which opened in London’s West End and was later transferred to Off-Broadway, without achieving great success.
The last time we saw him on the big screen was in the TV show where the ‘Friends’ cast came together in the same room for the second time since 2004. Iconic meeting place: the set where the TV series was shot, Stage 24. Warner Bros. in Burbank, California. studio. some of it Old friends They seemed excited about the situation, but not so much in Perry’s absence.. Let’s remember him better as the soul of that party called ‘Friends’.