Sometimes, a job is more than a job; it’s a catalyst for life-changing bonds that last for ages. That ended up being the friendship that formed between Friends co-stars Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston and ended up being exactly what helped Perry – who died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 54 – when he needed it most.
Less than a month before landing international fame, Perry was living in a tiny Los Angeles apartment. A wild story about Charlie Sheen found him praying to be famous someday; three weeks later, he auditioned for and was cast in Friends. Aniston, meanwhile, was initially offered the role of Monica Geller, only for Courteney Cox to prove more suitable, and so Aniston became Rachel Green. But to one another, they were truly, in the most meaningful way… friends.
Jennifer Aniston reached out to Matthew Perry the most
Even during their years of filming Friends together, Aniston kept a lookout on how Perry was doing. In Perry’s infamous struggle with addiction, he sometimes took as many as 55 Vicodin pills a day – he also characterized himself as an alcoholic by age 14. His battle with addiction was a difficult one and it was one Aniston eventually became aware of – although she said she did not know the full extent of his struggles.
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Perry reflected on Aniston’s supportive nature in a 2022 interview with Diane Sawyer. “Jennifer, she says, ‘We know you’re drinking,'” noted Sawyer during the interview. To this, Perry replied, “Yeah, imagine how scary a moment that was.” Aniston had been the first among the Friends cast to put to word what Perry was struggling with.
Speaking on TODAY, Aniston noted, “I didn’t understand the level of anxiety and self-torture that was put on Matthew Perry if he didn’t get that laugh, and the devastation that he felt. Which makes a lot of sense.” Nevertheless, Aniston’s words prompted a time of reflection and Perry did not like what he saw.
Jennifer Aniston made an impactful difference for Matthew Perry
“I should have been the toast of the town,” mused Perry later in the interview, “but I was in a dark room meeting with nothing but drug dealers and completely alone.” Perry tried to hide signs of his struggle with addiction but Aniston and the others did know something was up.
“[They] were understanding, and they were patient,” he said. “It’s like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
Aniston did that even when work no longer kept them constantly in each other’s orbits, as Perry shared, “She was the one that reached out the most. You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.”
