The actor noted that being on the popular sitcom didn't bring his friend 'happiness or peace.'
George Clooney is remembering Matthew Perry. In a new interview with Deadline, The Boys in the Boat director says that his longtime pal Perry, who died in October, wasn't happy while starring on Friends as Chandler Bing.
"I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together. He's about 10 years younger than me," Clooney recalls. "And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid. He was a kid and all he would say to us... 'I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth.'"
When Perry landed his role on "probably one of the best [sitcoms] ever," though, "he wasn't happy," according to Clooney.
"It didn't bring him joy or happiness or peace," Clooney says. "... It was hard to watch because we didn't know what was going through him. We just knew that he wasn't happy and I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff."
Perry is an example of how "success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness," Clooney says, adding, "You have to be happy with yourself and your life."
Earlier this month, Perry's autopsy report was released, listing the actor's cause of death as the acute effects of ketamine.
According to the report, Perry, who was found dead in his hot tub, was reportedly receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. His last known treatment was more than a week before his death, but the ketamine in his system could not be from that treatment since the drug's half-life is under four hours, according to the report.
The report noted that contributing factors to Perry's cause of death were drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, which is a drug that is prescribed for the medical treatment of people with an opioid drug dependence.
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