Courteney Cox has recently spoken about her former Friends costar Matthew Perry after he was criticized for slurring his speech during HBO Max’s Friends: The Reunion special last May. Discussing that, the Stream actress said to The Sunday Times, “He’s just struggled for a while. I think he’s doing great now.”
Previously, Perry has been open about alcoholism and addiction. “It wasn’t my intention to have a problem with it,” Perry told People in 2002 of his use of Vicodin. “But from the start, I liked how it made me feel and I wanted to get more,” he added. However, in 2016, Perry admitted he didn’t remember filming some of the Friends seasons. “I don’t remember three years of it,” Perry told BBC. “I was a little out of it at the time somewhere between seasons three and six.”
Meanwhile, during HBO Max’s Friends reunion special last year, Perry admitted that his portrayal of Chandler Bing, and the audience’s reaction to his performance, greatly affected his mental health. “For me, I felt like I was going to die if they didn’t laugh,” he stated. And when asked about Perry’s remark from the reunion, Cox said, “That was a lot of pressure he put on himself. That’s a lot to think how much he relied on that for his own self-worth.”
ALSO READ – Courteney Cox Reveals A Shocking Detail About ‘Scream’
Matthew Perry is set to release an autobiography in November, titled Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing. “So much has been written about me in the past,” he said. “I thought it was time people heard from me. The highs were high, the lows were low. But I have lived to tell the tale, even though at times it looked like I wouldn’t. And it’s all in here. I apologize it’s not a popup book,” Perry added.
As for Cox, the Friends reunion “was fantastic to see everybody again, reminisce, and realize how much fun we had,” she said. “Every now and then I’ll see an episode and this is still relevant and still funny,” the Shining Vale actress also shared in her Sunday Times interview, later adding, “I’m glad that Friends has gone through this many years and people still love it. If they stopped caring I would feel worse.”