Nearly two months after Matthew Perry‘s death at 54 years old, his former childhood friend and fellow actor George Clooney, 62, revisited some of his memories with the Friends alum during a December 19 interview with Deadline. In one of the biggest revelations from the rare interview, the ER alum claimed that Matthew was unhappy during his time on the hit sitcom. “He wasn’t happy. It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace,” George told the outlet.
The now 62-year-old revealed that Matthew had longed to be on a sitcom before he made it big on Friends. “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.’ And he got on probably one of the best ever,” George shared with Deadline. The Ocean’s Eleven star went on to explain how he worked alongside Matthew on the Warner Brothers lot during his time on ER while Matthew worked on Friends.
“Watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him,” he continued. “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.” The late Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing author was open about his battle with drugs ahead of his passing in October.
The longtime Hollywood heartthrob went on to express that fame and success was not enough to make Matthew happy. “And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness,” George said. “You have to be happy with yourself and your life.” George and Matthew not only knew each other from working on the same lot together, but they also knew each other when Matthew was just a teenager.
Earlier in the same interview, George revealed that he and the late actor used to play paddle tennis together when Matthew was a teen. “I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together,” he said. “He’s about 10 years younger than me. And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid.” Elsewhere during the conversation, the Ticket to Paradise star shared what it was like working alongside Matthew at Warner Brothers. “And Friends, man, that was a fun time to watch those guys,” George gushed. “We were all really close.”
Matthew died on October 28 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California. Nearly two months after his tragic passing, TMZ revealed that his official cause of death was due to “acute effects of ketamine.” The tabloid also reported that Matthew underwent ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety prior to his passing. Most recently, sources told US Weekly that some of Matthew’s loved ones were concerned about a drug overdose ahead of his death. “He’s been struggling with sobriety for years,” the insider said on December 19. “Every time he fell off the wagon there was a huge sense of shame.”
