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Aniston, Schwimmer add to tributes for ‘Friends’ co-star Matthew Perry
Los Angeles Nov 15, 2023
Matthew Perry at Smarter Justice: Lessons from the American problem-solving court movement. | Photo by Policy Exchange CC BY 2.0 DEED
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More “Friends” co-stars paid tribute Wednesday to Matthew Perry, as Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer took to Instagram to express grief over his death.
“Oh boy this one has cut deep,” Aniston wrote in her post, which was accompanied by a photo, video and screenshot of a text message she once received from Perry.
“Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before,” she wrote. “We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply.
“He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be. For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh,’ he though he was going to die. His life literally depended on it.
“And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been pouring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever. …
“Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day … sometimes I can almost hear you saying, ‘Could you BE any crazier?’ Rest little brother. You always made my day.”
Schwimmer also posted a photo of himself and Perry on the set of “Friends.”
“Thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity,” Schwimmer wrote. “I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes. And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers.”
Referring to the photo he posted, which shows their characters Ross and Chandler in a flashback episode wearing 1980s-style T-shirts and sport coats, Schwimmer called it “one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time.”
“I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around — ‘Could there BE any more clouds?'”
Their comments came one day after fellow “Friends” stars Matt LeBlanc and Courteney Cox paid heartfelt tribute to Perry.
The castmates had not commented individually prior to Tuesday, issuing only a joint statement days after Perry, 54, was found dead at his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. A cause of death has not yet been determined.
“Matthew, it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye,” LeBlanc wrote on his Instagram page, in a post accompanied by a series of photos of the pair on the “Friends” set.
“The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life,” LeBlanc wrote. “It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never.
“Spread your wings and fly brother you’re finally free. Much love. And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”
LeBlanc’s character Joey and Perry’s Chandler were roommates and best friends on the long-running comedy.
Cox, whose character Monica married Perry’s Chandler on the series, posted on Instagram a video of the scene — and a humorous outtake — in which the pair first connected romantically while in London.
“I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” Cox wrote. “When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now here’s one of my favorites. To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one night fling in London. But because of the audience’s reaction, it became the beginning of their love story. In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind.”
Perry openly spoke of his years-long struggle with addiction. He became addicted to Vicodin during his time on “Friends” — and had done multiple stints in rehab, including during filming of the show.
In 2022, Perry published a memoir detailing his troubles with drugs and alcohol, his issues with weight gain and loss, and other facets of his at-times tumultuous lifestyle, including a harrowing account of an emergency surgery following a gastrointestinal perforation, which nearly took his life.
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