The actor also weighed in on who should play him if his memoir gets made into a movie.
Matthew Perry is sharing his proudest moment on Friends. Following the release of his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, the 53-year-old actor set off on his book tour, beginning with a conversation in New York City, which was moderated by Jess Cagle.
When asked to recount his proudest moment from his time on the sitcom, which ran from 1994 to 2004, Perry pointed to the response to the show in the wake of 9/11.
"I guess the proudest moment was after the horrible 9/11," Perry said. "We were getting about 30 million viewers a week. After that happened for about two or three months, our ratings went up by about three million people, so 33 million people were watching."
"Then it went back down," he continued. "But during that period of time, everybody watched it for comfort, everybody went to it for comfort, and that was one of my proudest moments."
The show was popular with not just viewers, but celebrities as well. Throughout its decade-long run, Friends welcomed guest stars including Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt and George Clooney.
Perry, however, revealed his favorite guest star to be Sean Penn. The actor appeared in season 8 as Eric, Ursula's fiancé, who later dated her twin, Phoebe, both of whom were played by Lisa Kudrow.
"Unfortunately, in that episode I had to dress up as a pink bunny rabbit," Perry quipped of the Halloween-themed episode on which Penn appeared. "But there were many great guest stars on the show."
Revelations like those are why Perry's memoir has been a hit among fans. The success of the book, Perry said, means that there is already talk about turning it into a movie. Should the movie get made, Perry said he'd like to play himself in present-day times and noted that he already knew who should play him in his younger years.
"Well, Zac Efron did it once," he quipped of the actor, who starred as a high school-aged Perry in the 2009 flick 17 Again.
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is out now.
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