When actor Matthew Perry finally fulfilled a dream by landing a leading role in a sitcom, he was unable to find the "joy or happiness or peace" he was looking for, according to actor George Clooney.
Clooney made the remarks during an interview with Deadline while recalling how he ended up booking "ER" around the same time that Perry landed a role of Chandler Bing in "Friends." Both shows premiered in 1994 on NBC.
"We were side by side on the soundstage," Clooney said "We were all really close. We were at the upfronts in 1994 in New York."
Clooney said he met Perry when Perry was 16 and up-and-coming in the business. Clooney described Perry as a "funny, funny, funny kid."
"All he would say to me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, '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 said. "And he got on probably one of the best ever.
"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."
Clooney said that while he knew Perry was not happy, he was unaware that the actor was battling drug addiction. Perry has been vocal about his struggles in the past.
"We just knew that he wasn't happy and I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about … It also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn't just automatically bring you happiness," Clooney said. "You have to be happy with yourself and your life."
Perry, 54, died from drowning in a hot tub at his home in California on Oct. 28.
An autopsy report later revealed that his death was due to "acute effects of ketamine," a drug he was using for depression and addiction treatment, though it's unclear if he obtained it via prescription or illegally.
However, the ketamine found in his system wasn't from his final therapy.
"He essentially died from an overdose of ketamine and had about three times the normal [dosage] amount in his system," pathologist Dr. Michael Baden told the New York Post.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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