In an interview with People magazine on Wednesday, October 19, American actor Matthew Perry talked about his addiction to alcohol and painkillers throughout his career. The 53-year-old actor admitted a few years ago he almost died from a gastrointestinal perforation due to drug abuse. He added that doctors had informed his family that he had a “2% chance of survival”.
“They put me on the ECMO machine, which manages all the breathing of the heart and lungs. This is called the Hail Mary. No one survived that.”
Matthew Perry was unconscious for two weeks, was hospitalized for five months when his colon ruptured, and had to wear an ostomy bag for nine months. In addition, the actor has undergone 14 stomach surgeries.
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During the filming of Friends, Matthew Perry’s weight dropped dramatically.
Matthew Perry said while filming Friends, he took 55 Vicodin pills a day, which caused him to lose 128 pounds of weight.
“I don’t know how to stop. If a policeman shows up at my door and says, ‘If you drink tonight, we’ll put you in jail’, I’ll start packing. I couldn’t give up because both the illness and the addiction were progressing. As a result, it only gets worse as you get older.”
At the age of 24, Matthew Perry was cast as Chandler Bing in Friends, and his alcoholism was evident.
“I can manage somehow. But when I was 34 years old, I got myself into a lot of trouble. But there were years when I was pure and sane. Season 9 was the first year I was fully awake. And do you know what season I was nominated for best actor? ‘That will tell me something,’ I thought.
Matthew Perry is currently committed to helping others overcome addiction after overcoming his own challenges and coming clean. When asked about his sobriety, he said nothing has changed except “your sober date.”
“You remember everything you knew before and learn a lot because you fought to come back without dying.”
According to Us Magazine, Perry’s addiction to Vicodin began in 1997, after a jet skiing accident also led to his addiction to alcohol. He went for treatment the following year, but remained clean for only a short time. He was hospitalized for two weeks in 2000 with alcoholic pancreatitis and was rehabilitated later that year. However, when he was filming Serving Sarah the following year, he went into rehab. Matthew Perry revealed in 2011 that he was taking a break from addiction training. Perry was in a coma for two weeks when his intestines ruptured seven years later. In 2021, he returns to Friends Reunion, where the director of the special, Ben Winston, said he was a pleasure to work with.
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Source: HIS Education