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Matthew Perry has given us a look at his departure from Adam McKay’s acclaimed political film Don’t Look Up.
Coincidentally, Perry was initially cast to play a Republican reporter in the film. The film starred Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as two astronomers. It follows the pair’s media tour to send caution to people about a comet approaching Earth that may wipe out all of existence on the planet.
In his forthcoming memoir, the Friends alum recalls another shocking event. His heart stopped beating for five minutes while in rehab for alcohol and drug addiction. Ultimately, this led to his exit from the film.
At one point, in the rehabilitation center in Switzerland, Perry pretended to have severe stomach pain to get medication from his doctors. In Friends, Lover, and the Big Terrible Thing, he says it was a need because he still couldn’t control his addiction.
“In fact, I was OK,” Perry wrote, according to Rolling Stone. “It still felt like I was constantly doing a sit-up. So, it was very uncomfortable, but it wasn’t pain.”
Friends Saved His Life
His doctors gave him hydrocodone. And before surgery for the pain, prescribed propofol – which is utilized as an anesthetic.
“I was given the shot at 11:00 am,” Perry recalled.
“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. And I didn’t flatline. But nothing had been beating.
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“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.”
He added: “If I hadn’t been on Friends, would he have stopped at three minutes?”
“Did Friends save my life again? He may have saved my life, but he also broke eight of my ribs.”
Wasn’t Included in the Cut
Furthermore, Perry shared he was set to act in three scenes with Meryl Streep. However, with the procedure’s pain, he made the “heartbreaking” choice to depart from the film. He called it “the biggest movie I’d gotten ever.”
He did make a group scene with Jonah Hill and the others. But, unfortunately, it didn’t make the cut.
“I was on 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone then as well. But nobody noticed,” he wrote of his time on set.
The movie didn’t quite work out for him. But he did learn a critical lesson.
“I was hirable in something big without putting on a show,” an excerpt read. “In that meeting, Adam and I had just been two men talking. I will treasure that moment, that day, that man. What a good guy. And I sincerely hope our paths cross again.”
In addition to those events, the actor plunges deep into his alcohol and opioid abuse in the memoir. It also mentions behind-the-scenes tales about his experience on Friends.
Perry added that co-actors Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc, all backed him up during his addiction.
“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,” Perry shared with PEOPLE. “The walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
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