Matthew Perry has a new memoir out, in which he delves into both being on one of the ‘90s’ most enduring sitcoms and wrestling with addiction. There are lighthearted moments, such as the time he wrote a physics paper to lure Julia Roberts into a guest starring role on Friends. There are also bleak-o-rama passages, as when he reveals that he narrowly escaped death. Among the darker passages include the story of co-star Jennifer Aniston confronting him over his drinking.
An excerpt from Perry’s Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing published in The Times U.K. (in a bit caught by Entertainment Weekly) details how Aniston grew hip to Perry’s alcohol addiction even though he’d been careful never to be drunk on set. (He’s also previously revealed that he has no memory filming a few seasons of the show.)
“I know you’re drinking,” Aniston had said. He also reveals that he used to have a thing for the onscreen Rachel Green. “I had long since gotten over her — ever since she started dating Brad Pitt, I was fine — and had worked out exactly how long to look at her without it being awkward, but still, to be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating.”
Perry also admits that he was “confused” as to how Aniston could tell. “I’ve been trying to hide it.” Perry wrote. “‘We can smell it,’ she said, in a kind of weird but loving way, and the plural ‘we’ hit me like a sledgehammer. ‘I know I’m drinking too much,’ I said, ‘but I don’t exactly know what to do about it.'”
In an interview with Diane Sawyer set to air on ABC on October 28, Perry opened up more about this “scary” moment. “She was the one that reached out the most,” Perry said. “You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
You can watch a clip from Perry’s Sawyer sit-down below.
(Via The Times U.K. and EW)
