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Among the revelations included in his candid memoir, Matthew Perry touched upon the real reason why he had to pull out of the "biggest movie" of his career.
Best known for the role of Chandler Bing on Friends, the TV star opened up about his decade-long struggle with addiction, fame, and personal relationships in his book, titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. Released in November 2022, the memoir also confirmed he was going to be part of the sizable, star-studded ensemble of Adam McKay's apocalyptic satire Don't Look Up, but had to exit abruptly due to medical reasons.
2020 reports first shared the news of his involvement as he was spotted on set with one of the film's stars, The Wolf of Wall Street's Jonah Hill. However, Perry's character ended up on the cutting room floor.
Matthew Perry Was Supposed To Star In Three Scenes In Don't Look Up
Perry had originally been cast as a conservative journalist in Don't Look Up and was supposed to appear in three scenes.
While the actor doesn't feature in the film's final cut, he did film one of said scenes alongside Jonah Hill. The Superbad alum stars in the role of Jason Orlean, Chief of Staff and Meryl Streep's President Orlean's son.
In December 2020, Hill and Perry shot a scene together, with Perry donning a classy coat, scarf, and leather gloves and appearing to be speaking at a political rally. The two actors were joined by another cast member dressed up to look like singer Kid Rock (via Daily Mail).
The scene didn't make the cut, probably because Perry couldn't film the other two in his character's arc.
In his memoir, he described Don't Look Up as the "biggest movie I'd gotten ever," expressing regret over not getting to film alongside Streep and revealing the scary medical reason why he couldn't continue working on it.
Why Did Matthew Perry Pulled Out Of Don't Look Up?
In the book, the actor said he was on 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone — a pain medication prescribed to him by a rehab facility in Switzerland — when he filmed the scene with Hill.
He experienced stomach pains at the time, writing: "In fact, I was OK," and adding: "It still felt like I was constantly doing a sit-up — so it was very uncomfortable — but it wasn't pain."
The star explained that he never got to film his other scenes after he was given propofol for anesthesia ahead of a surgery to "put some kind of weird medical device in my back." He had downed hydrocodone the night before surgery and that interacted with the anesthetic, causing his heart to stop for a few minutes.
"I was given the shot at 11:00 a.m. I woke up eleven hours later in a different hospital. Apparently, the propofol had stopped my heart. For five minutes. It wasn't a heart attack — I didn't flatline — but nothing had been beating," Perry wrote.
Matthew Perry Explained How Friends Saved His Life Once Again
The doctors managed to save Perry's life, with one of them doing CPR on him for several minutes.
"I was told that some beefy Swiss guy really didn't want the guy from Friends dying on his table and did CPR on me for the full five minutes, beating and pounding my chest," Perry's memoir also reads.
"If I hadn't been on Friends, would he have stopped at three minutes? Did Friends save my life again?" the actor asked.
Perry explained that while the medical professional might have saved his life, the intense CPR he performed ended up breaking his ribs.
"He may have saved my life, but he also broke eight of my ribs," he wrote.
The decision to pull out of the movie was "heartbreaking" for the 17 Again actor, but he was in too much pain in the aftermath of the incident to get back to work.
Matthew Perry Shared Details Of His Addiction In His Book
The Fools Rush In star didn't hold back in his book, sharing previously unknown details of his addiction to various substances and the impact these have had on his physical and mental health.
The memoir opens with the revelation that he almost died when he was 49. At the time, he publicly acknowledged he had a gastrointestinal perforation. Actually, the actor's colon burst as a consequence of his substance abuse, and he spent two weeks in a coma and five months in the hospital.
"The doctors told my family that I had a 2% hance to live," Perry recalled.
"I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."
In an interview with People about his book, the actor said that he had been wanting to share his journey for a long time, but wanted to wait until he was "safely sober".
"I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people."
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing was released on November 1. Don't Look Up is available to stream on Netflix.
