Friends actor Matthew Perry who played Chandler Bing in the famous Sitcom wrote a memoir called ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,’ and opened up about various aspects of his life, including his drug addiction, love life, and career struggles.
The 53-year-old actor has written a memoir based on his life, and it’s set to release today i.e. November 1.
Last week, Variety released a particular excerpt from Perry’s book in which he talked about the Matrix star Keanu Reeves.
In one section, Matthew discussed his friendship with the late American actor River Phoenix and wrote,
“River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
In 1988, the 53-year-old actor made his first movie, “A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon,” with Keanu’s longtime best friend, River Phoenix.
In the film, Perry played the role of Phoenix’s Best friend. During the filming, Perry and River became close, and when River died in 1993 at the age of 23 due to a drug overdose, Perry was heartbroken.
“River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,” he wrote in his new book.
He cited Keanu in his book not once but twice, and both times, in a weirdly bitter and bizarre way that didn’t sit well with most of his fans and, of course, Reeves’ fans.
“His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word ‘heroin,’ a fear we did not share),” he wrote while writing about the death of comedian Chis Farley.
“I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”
After reading his takes, many fans of Reeves got triggered and couldn’t contain their resentment toward Matthew’s statements.
“Come on… Keanu Reeves is like one of those frozen cakes. Nobody doesn’t like him!” actress Lynda Carter wrote on Twitter.
“Matthew Perry dumping on Keanu Reeves is a joke. Keanu has had his series of personal tragedies (death of fiancé, unborn child, sister dying of cancer, etc.) yet he rises above it to be a kind and generous human being. And then there’s Matthew Perry who’s a self-indulgent tool,” another wrote.
“Matthew Perry coming back from the brink with a tell-all memoir about his devastating battle with addiction and immediately forcing a massive error by gratuitously dissing America’s favorite son Keanu Reeves is funny as hell,” someone commented.
After a few media outlets released his excerpts, Matthew spoke to People Magazine and said he was sorry that he misspoke about the John Wick actor.
“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
He added, “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again. I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”
What are your thoughts on Perry’s statements about Keanu in his memoir? Let us know your views.
