Remembering Matthew Perry solely for his work on “Friends” is disrespectful when he contributed so greatly to the sober-living community.
Matthew Perry, 54, died on Oct. 28th in a jacuzzi outside of his home. Many people know him as Chandler from the hit TV show Friends, but Perry said that when he died, he hoped he would be remembered for all the time he spent helping others.
“When I die, I don’t want Friends to be the first thing that is mentioned,” Perry said on the “Q With Tom Power” podcast in 2022. “I want [helping people] to be the first thing that’s mentioned, and I am going to live the rest of my life proving that.”
Throughout his life, Perry spent time in and out of 15 rehab centres for addiction to various substances. Starting to drink at the age of 14, Perry’s problems became even worse after he became addicted to Vicodin—a painkiller—following a jet ski accident in 1997. The actor spoke openly about this time of his life and his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse in various interviews, as well as his book “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.”
“Addiction,” Perry wrote in his book, “the big terrible thing, is far too powerful for anyone to defeat alone, but together, one day at a time, we can beat it down.” This is exactly what Perry spent a good deal of his later life doing.
In 2011, Perry lobbied the U.S Congress to fund drug courts as an alternative to incarceration. He hoped that this would help individuals recover from addiction rather than succumb to it. Perry also hoped it would reduce further criminal activity.
In 2013, Perry turned his former Malibu home into a sober living facility.
Now, a foundation he supposedly began working on before his death has been launched in his name to help people who are “struggling with the disease of addiction.”
These are only a few notable things Perry did throughout his life to bring awareness to addiction. So why does everyone want to remember him solely for the character of Chandler Bing?
Sure, the floppy-haired, court jester of a character is one the most memorable from “Friends.” While the show was a prime-time hit when it was on air, it also has had a renaissance with a younger generation in the past 10 years. Everybody—your mom, your uncle, your grandma, your youngest cousin—they all know Friends.
Perhaps it is simply a lack of knowledge regarding the work that Perry did advocating for addiction resources and sober living. People are more interested in the funny character of Chandler than they are in the heartbreaking reality of addiction. That’s not an unfair assumption to make. Perhaps people simply see Perry as a relief from their everyday worries and pressures, not someone who they want to cause them more. But is ignorance a good excuse for a lack of social awareness?
The comment sections on TikTok praise Perry for his acting, networks play his movies and people leave flowers outside of the apartment building that stood in for the one his character lived in on Friends. But no one seems to be talking about the incredible work he did to support those who were struggling in the same way he was.
To me, it feels like a missed opportunity.
