George Clooney Says Matthew Perry Didn’t Get “Joy or Happiness” From Starring on ‘Friends’

Averi Baudler

20 December 2023 at 11:55 am·2-min read

"Success and money and all those things, it doesn't just automatically bring you happiness."

Over a month after Matthew Perry’s tragic passing shocked the world back in October, George Clooney is giving some insight into the actor’s professional life on the Friends set. In a new interview with Deadline published on Tuesday, Clooney reflected on his decades-long friendship with Perry, whom he first met when Matthew was 16 and he was 24.

“I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together ... And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid,” he told the outlet, adding that Perry used to tell him, Richard Kind, and Grant Heslov, “‘I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth.’”

Clooney then explained that while Matthew’s wish came true when he landed the role of Chandler Bing on Friends — arguably one of the most popular sitcoms of all time — it didn’t result in the happiness he had been searching for.

“He got on probably one of the best, ever," the former ER star said of the actor’s Friends gig. "He wasn't happy. It didn't bring him joy or happiness or peace. And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn't know what was going through him. We just knew that he wasn't happy."

George added that he wasn’t aware of the extent of Matthew’s addiction until he released his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, in 2022.

“I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff," Clooney said. "It also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn't just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”

The late actor passed away back in October after drowning due to what the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner deemed “the acute effects of ketamine.”

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