Matthew Perry sat down with Diane Sawyer for an intimate ABC Nightline interview last week in which the Friends alum, 53, opened up about his near-death experience due to drug addiction, and the effects that his battle had on his overall health. Many fans have expressed their concerns for Perry’s wellbeing in recent years, especially after hearing his slurred speech in interviews. Perry told Sawyer, 76, about how his dental surgery just before the May 2021 Friends reunion affected his ability to speak, as well as other shocking revelations ahead of the November 1st release of his new book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.
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Perry’s Slurred Speech, Dental Surgery and Friends Reunion
In the sit-down interview, Sawyer referred to the noticeable “wear and tear” on Perry’s “voice and speech,” while listening to him, and the 17 Again actor explained that he needed to get all of his teeth replaced last year in a major surgery. This naturally effected his speech, and occurred just before the long-awaited Friends reunion special in which Perry was expected by fans to join his iconic sitcom cast members Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc.
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Perry detailed having to undergo “emergency dental surgery” just days before filming the reunion. “They did all sorts of things,” Perry told Sawyer, adding that the procedure “made [his] mouth feel like fire.” Perry explained that he wanted to make an appearance despite this, although his slurred speech did inevitably worry fans. “It sounded like my voice was off,” he acknowledged, but confessed that he felt he “couldn’t not show up.” Perry went on, “So what I chose to do was just go and do the best that I could,” he told the longtime interviewer, who noted the “wear and tear on his voice and speech.”
yep we really should talk more on jennifer aniston and matthew perry friendship pic.twitter.com/AHx5C7v2wy
— hana (@mndlersftw) June 2, 2021
Perry recently revealed that he has been clean of all substances for the past 18 months, and was newly sober when the reunion aired. Later on in the interview, Perry discussed having his front teeth fall out while biting into peanut butter toast, and then needing to have all of his teeth replaced as a result. The Emmy winner explained that he had to carry his teeth in his jean pocket on the way to the dentist to get them fixed, making it an understandably stressful and traumatic situation.
Support From Friends Castmates and Details of Perry’s Behind-the-Scenes Battle
Perry’s addiction to pills began at the height of his fame due to the beloved NBC show, as he became addicted to Vicodin following a 1997 jet ski accident. He later told Sawyer and viewers that he had his first drink at the age of 14 and remembered feeling like he was “in heaven.” By the time he turned 18, he was drinking “every day.”
During his interview with Sawyer, Perry expressed with tears in his eyes that his co-star Aniston supported him and urged him to get help for his addiction. He recalled a moment when the Golden Globe-winning actress came to his trailer and told him that the cast could smell booze on him. He said, “She was the one who reached out the most, you know. I’m really grateful to her for that.” Perry admitted that throughout his experience filming the successful series that the cast had to “prop [him] up,” and that its producers also confronted him about his noticeable addiction.
Perry tried to cope with this by making one rule for himself. He said, “I made a rule that I would never drink or take anything at work, so I would do that, but I would show up blindly hungover. Like shaking and crazy hungover.” He noted that after being prescribed painkillers in 1997, he was taking approximately 55 pills per day, and doing whatever he could to receive the medication from doctors, including having MRIs done for “fake migraines.” He also confessed that he frequent “open houses” to find pills in bathrooms to “steal them.” He added, “I think they thought ‘Oh, there’s no way that Chandler stole from us.'”
Perry’s Message To Fans
Perry admitted to Sawyer that “it’s not fun to talk about this stuff,” regarding his personal life, drug and alcohol addiction battles, but that he ultimately wanted to open up about it in order to “help people” also experiencing similar brutal and exhausting situations. Perry told Sawyer that he has attended approximately 6,000 AA meetings, been in therapy for 30 years, spent half of his life in treatment, and been to detox around 65 times.
After 15 rehab stays, fans will be relieved to know that Perry has since maintained his sobriety and is determined to never fall down an unhealthy or toxic path again. The Fools Rush In star recalled, “I wasn’t doing [drugs] to feel high or to feel good. I certainly wasn’t a partier; I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie.” He then added, “That was heaven for me. It no longer is.”
