Netflix’s “The One About Matthew Perry” lifts the curtain into the personal and professional life of the beloved “Friends” star, as well as the suffocating addiction that led to his 2023 death.
Hailing from Maxine Productions, the three-part docuseries hears from Perry’s sister, Maria “Mia” Perry Bowick, his friends Roger Castillo, David Pressman, Kevin Pollak as well as numerous colleagues, exes and other friends. Together, the accounts range from Perry’s early days in Los Angeles, his big break with “Friends” and the various career ups and downs that followed as he battled addiction.
Below, we lay out the seven biggest revelations that emerged from the documentary.
Perry’s family treated the “Friends” wedding like a real wedding
By the time Chandler and Monica’s wedding came around during the Season 7 finale of “Friends,” Perry was commuting back and forth from rehab to shoot the show. The occasion was a big moment for both sides of Perry’s family, with her sister recalling, “It was a really big deal because we’re all worried about him, we don’t know what what’s going to happen in the future.”
“The unspoken truth we were all sitting with in one way or another was, is this his wedding?” Bowick said. “When Matthew said his vows to her, the emotion in his eyes and everything was so real.”
Bowick added that while their connection was platonic, there was certainly love between Perry and Cox, making “a happy memory mixed with some sadness” for Bowick.
Perry spent $7 million trying to get sober
In the second episode of the documentary, Bowick revealed Perry “spent about $7 million over his lifetime trying to get sober” via rehabilitation programs. It’s a number that Bowick admits is “staggering.”
“It just paints a picture to me of overall how serious he took his disease and how desperate he was to be sober,” she said, adding that his disease led her to become a therapist.
“I got the sense that he was just so frustrated and angry and sad that he couldn’t beat it,” Pressman said.
The “Friends” reunion was a low point after his near-death experience
Matthew Perry’s appearance in the “Friends” reunion came just a couple years after his near-death experience in 2018, when his colon ruptured and prompted a two-week coma and a five-month hospital stay. Bowick said the experience led him to age 20 years in three months.
But, despite still facing medical struggles, he chose to participate in HBO Max’s unscripted special for the 25th anniversary of “Friends.” “I do remember around the time of the ‘Friends’ reunion, Matthew being focused on being sober, struggling with sobriety, knowing the importance of this … long-awaited (reunion), right, a lot of pressure.”
Bowick recalled he was diminished following the bodily traumas, with “Friends” writer/producer Jeff Strauss saying he “behaviorally announced” what he had been through. Pollak admitted Perry struggled in the special, saying “it’s tough to watch, because he’s just not himself.” Pressman declined to speak about the special.
While his friends recalled it was difficult to see the critical comments come in after the special aired, Bowick said Perry felt “relieved.”
Perry regretted moving on from romantic partners so fast
The near-death experience also prompted some self-reflection from Perry regarding his romantic relationships, prompting him to reach out in 2020 to an ex-girlfriend named Rome and resume their friendship.
But even before that, Castillo recalled that Perry would “move on quickly and then regret moving on.”
Debuting his memoir is when he was at his happiest
Just over a year after the “Friends” reunion, Perry published his 2022 memoir, titled, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” which became an instant success, boosting him to a career high.
“He was just really excited about that and really proud of that,” Bowick said, while Pressman noted Perry wouldn’t “let him forget” how successful the book was.
“He was the happiest we’d really ever seen him,” Bowick said. “I think the memoir, in a lot of ways, was accomplishing his life’s work … he made it to the top of that mountain.”
The rest of the “Friends” held hands and cried around his casket at the funeral
Bowick described the funeral as small including the “close friends and family only,” and revealed that the rest of the “Friends” cast “all walked in together” and proceeded to hug her, though the first hug came from Jennifer Aniston.
“And then all five of them walked up to the casket holding hands and stood around him crying,” Bowick said.
Kenneth Iwamasa’s involvement in Perry’s death came as a shock to the family
Five defendants were charged in August 2024 in connection with Perry’s death, including “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, Dr. Mark Chavez, Salvador Plasencia and Erik Fleming. But the fifth one, Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, was a shock to Bowick and her mother. It was revealed that Iwamasa either obtained or administered the ketamine to Perry.
“Kenny’s known my brother for 30 years. He knows what he’s battling. The level of betrayal we all felt … he should have known better,” Bowick said. “He could have quit his job, he could have come and told one of the family members. He could have done a lot of different things, he could have made a lot of different choices.”
“The One About Matthew Perry” is now streaming on Netflix.
The post ‘The One About Matthew Perry’: 7 Revelations From the Netflix Docuseries appeared first on TheWrap.
