Matthew Perry revealed he had to undergo “emergency dental surgery” days before filming the “Friends” reunion last April.
“They did all kinds of things,” the 53-year-old actor told Diane Sawyer during a session that aired Friday on ABC’s “Nightline,” adding that the procedure “made [his] mouth feels like fire.”
At the time, Perry’s slurred speech and mile-long stare left fans concerned for his well-being.
“It felt like my voice was off,” he admitted, but he knew he “couldn’t not show up.”
“So what I chose to do was go and do the best I could,” he told the longtime interviewer, who noted the “wear and tear of his voice and his speech.”
Matthew Perry told Diane Sawyer on Friday that he had to undergo “emergency dental surgery” days before filming the 2021 “Friends” reunion.
ABC News
Matthew Perry told Diane Sawyer on Friday that he had to undergo “emergency dental surgery” days before filming the 2021 “Friends” reunion.
ABC News
near near
Among the couple’s 100 guests was “Bachelor” Nation co-star Rachel…
Perry recently revealed that he has been clean of all substances for the past 18 months, meaning he was newly sober when the highly anticipated reunion aired in May 2021.
The “Whole Nine Yards” star spoke with Sawyer ahead of the Nov. 1 release of her tell-all, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir,” the contents of which she has detailed in several interviews recent
One of the many bombshells she’s shared is the fact that her front teeth fell out while biting into peanut butter on toast, so she had to replace them all.
Sawyer noted the “wear and tear of his voice and his speech.” ABC News
During her interview with Sawyer that at times turned to tears, Perry recounted the moment her “Friends” co-star Jennifer Aniston came to her trailer to chime in, saying the cast could smell the alcohol
He admitted that there were times when his teammates had to “close [him] up” and that the producers also confronted him about his addictions.
Perry told Sawyer, 76, who has attended about 6,000 AA meetings, has been in therapy for 30 years, has spent half his life in treatment or sober homes and has been detoxified about 65 times.
Earlier this month, Perry revealed that she almost died in 2018 when her colon burst from an opioid overdose.GC Images
Earlier this month, the actor revealed that he came “close to dying” in 2018 when his colon burst from an opioid overdose.
At the time, Perry publicly claimed to have suffered a “gastrointestinal perforation”, but in reality she spent five months in hospital, including two weeks in a coma, and had to use a colostomy bag for nine months .
“The doctors told my family I had a 2 percent chance of living,” she told People in a story published Oct. 19. “They put me on something called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your heart. lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. Nobody survives that.”
Perry also told the outlet that she was one of five people connected to life support that night and that “the other four” did not make it.
The Emmy winner, who has been to rehab a total of 15 times, explained that the scars from his dozens of stomach surgeries are “a lot of reminders to stay sober.”
He added that his therapist also helped him kick his addictions when they told him, “‘The next time you think about taking Oxycontin, just think about having a colostomy bag for the rest of your life.'”
The “Fools Rush In” star said the comment caused “a little window” to open and she “crawled into it.”
He revealed in his interview with Sawyer that Jennifer Aniston once came to his trailer to intervene, saying that the cast could smell alcohol on her. NBCUniversal via Getty Images
Speaking to the New York Times shortly after her chat with People, Perry estimated that she’s “spent $9 million or something trying to get sober.”
During the same interview, the actor reflected on how his decades-long and “debilitating” addictions to drugs and alcohol took over his life at the height of his long “Friends” career.
At one point, Perry “would wake up and have to get 55 Vicodin that day and figure out how to do it.”
“When you’re a drug addict, it’s all math,” he said. “I wasn’t doing it to get high or to feel good…I just wanted to sit on my couch, take five Vicodin and watch a movie. That was heaven to me. It’s not anymore.”
He told the Times that he started drinking beer and wine when he was 14, which turned into a combination of vodka by the quart, Vicodin, Xanax and OxyContin. He said he drew the line with heroin.
Perry recently announced that he has been clean and sober for 18 months. mattyperry4/Instagram
In his memoir, Perry writes that immediately after his “Friends” character Chandler Bing married Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) during the season 7 finale, which aired in 2001, he was “driven back to the treatment center . . . in a pickup truck. led by a sober technician.”
He admits that fans of the show can tell what drugs he was taking by tracking his “weight from one season to the next.”
The actor’s book, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir,” is out Nov. 1 on Amazon.
The actor also reveals he had to pull out of the 2021 film Don’t Look Up after his heart stopped “for five minutes” in the middle of back surgery because his medication anesthetics had combined with the hydrocodone he still had in his system. the night before
He says he is currently on Suboxone, a drug that treats opioid withdrawal, and will be on it for the rest of his life.
Perry told GQ in an interview published Thursday that she doesn’t expect her “Friends” co-stars — with the exception of Lisa Kudrow, who wrote the foreword — to read her book because she thinks only “addicts … and “Friends” fans. “She’ll worry about that.”