He had some pretty progressive views on treating addiction based on his own experience with it. Also he was my favorite on the show even though the show is undeniably problematic in many ways, it still brought me comfort to come home and watch it after facing bigotry back in high school, kind of an escapism into a reality where I could be an adult with friends.
All in all I am mildly shocked and bummed, but it's hard to merit much dismay about the death of a wealthy actor when I'm already much more concerned about oppressed Palestinians.
Friends was problematic and overrated but damn if I didn't enjoy it for what it was, that being fun slop to watch while I'm winding down with friends and family.
So this and David Schwimmer outing himself as an unapologetic Zionist in the same week (not that it was too surprising) does feel like a kick to the gut.
Yeah the fact it happened now is such a whiplash. Like I feel bad for his family and friends, but it comes after feeling that way for a far less powerful people the past month.
Dude fucked his body up pretty good when Friends was at its peak. In addition to being unfunny sitcom slop for , watching him and Courtney Cox being the TV poster couple for the horrible effects of unchecked Hollywood excess was unsettling.
Perry, the son of actor John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Marie Langford, onetime press secretary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, was born in 1969 and grew up between Montreal and Los Angeles after his parents separated when Perry was 1.
whenever reflecting on a different dead actor (for example River Phoenix or Chris Farley), Matthew Perry would say (in his memoirs released in 2022) it wasn't fair/right that they were dead and Keanu Reeves was still alive.
i know it's a thing to worship keanu, but by many accounts he seems to be a fairly shy, decent guy who has experienced pretty severe personal tragedies (stillborn child, wife died in car accident, sister with leukemia) and comes across as someone grounded and relatable.
i haven't found perry amusing for about 20 years and despite being the star of [White] FRIENDS, he completely shit the bed at doing anything else, probably because his one-note bitter-sarcastic "acting" range didn't translate to anything after his little star vehicle ran itself into the ground.... meanwhile everyone else in that cast went on to do some critically acclaimed work. my personal favorite moves of former friends main cast:
Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, The Comeback - brilliant takedown of "reality" tv production specifically, and sitcoms/the hollywood system more generally
this summer i got drunk and fell asleep in a hot tub. glad i didn’t drown! (my back was covered in cup-like marks from the air jets though. almost as bad)
Don't think the admins would appreciate me dropping a direct link, but you can hit me up on Matrix (click my profile and then "Send Secure Message"). I've got it as a chaptered M4B file which should play nicely with the audiobook player of your choosing (I'm partial to the FOSS Android app Voice)
(also if this is also frowned upon sorry admins/mods, please remove my comment)
To my very limited knowledge, I don't think he did or said anything too bad. And apparently he beat up a young Justin Trudeau in like elementary school.
So I am withholding my "Another Krakkker Down" and putting out a tentative "RIP".