Matthew Perry has shared the heartbreaking reason that he feels unable to rewatch Friends.
The actor shot to fame the world over when he was cast as Chandler Bing in the sitcom back in 1994, but dealt with alcohol addiction and substance abuse issues during the show’s 10-year run.
He spoke candidly of his struggles in his recently-released memoir Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing, and recently sat down with CBC to discuss the subject further.
During the interview, Matthew admitted that he had not watched the hit show as it serves as a painful reminded about his past issues.
He recalled: “I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people – and that’s why I can’t watch the show, because I was brutally thin.
“I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, ‘Drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine’. I could tell season by season by how I looked.
“That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see.”
Matthew also recalled a time on set when he was hungover, and struggled to stand up.
He explained: “At one point I was shaking so much that if I was gonna go from the bookshelf to the table, I’d have to quickly do it and put my hand on the table so I wouldn’t shake. It got that bad.”
During the interview, Matthew became emotional as he said the unfairness of his illness “always makes him cry”.
“It’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t,” he said.
“They got everything that I got, but I had to fight this thing - and still have to fight this thing.”
“Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up,” he said.
“They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
He also singled out Jennifer Aniston, saying: “She was the one that reached out the most. I’m really grateful to her for that.”
In his book, which was released in October, has spoke out about his romantic life, disclosing why he ended his short-lived romance with Julia Roberts at the height of Friends’ success, and shared details of a rather disastrous date with Cameron Diaz.
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