October 29, 2023

"Matthew Perry was so similar to the wisecracking character he played..."

"... that when he first read the script for Friends Like Us (later renamed Friends) in 1994, he said it was as if somebody had followed him around for a year, stolen his jokes and aped his 'world-weary yet witty view of life.'  'It wasn’t that I thought I could play Chandler, I was Chandler,' he said of the character known for such one-liners as: 'Hi, I’m Chandler, I make jokes when I’m uncomfortable' and 'I’m not great at advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?' The likeness was so uncanny that Perry’s actor friends, who were auditioning for the series in 1994 and had also spotted the similarities, flocked to his apartment to seek his advice. Perry suggested techniques and claimed that most of his friends copied him, but when it came to his own audition he 'broke all the rules,' ditching the script and landing jokes on odd emphases, a trick which would come to define his role and influence a generation of comedy actors. (Could he be any more funny, for example.) Much of Chandler’s humour, though already eerily matched with Perry’s own, was shaped by an interview the producers arranged with the cast before filming. Perry told them that he always filled silences with witticisms and that he 'didn’t do well with women.'"


Goodbye, Chandler.

ADDED: The One With Chandler in a Box:

27 comments:

Saint Croix said...

Serving Sara is fantastic, too.

RIP, Matt, love you brother.

Perry told them that he always filled silences with witticisms and that he 'didn’t do well with women.'"

So honest!

rehajm said...

So sorry to believe one on them is gone. Well you’re gonna…

Breezy said...

So sad to hear this last night. It feels like a real friend has passed away. RIP

William said...

Drowning in a hot tub. Not the way I'd picture Chandler making his exit. It does seem like the kind of death that begs for a Chandler witticism though.....Matthew Perry seems to have had a lot of gifts but one great curse that cancelled them all out.

Enigma said...

"Twisted Anti-Vaxxers Rush to Blame Matthew Perry’s Death on Covid Vaccine"

https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/matthew-perry-death-blamed-on-covid-19-vaccine-by-anti-vaxxers-1234865224

Don't shoot me as the messenger.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Did you hear that little guitar riff between scenes? That's why I couldn't watch the show.

RIP - He seemed funny and likable.

mezzrow said...

Does the self-awareness lead to the self-destructiveness, or vice versa? A sad end for someone who seemed a genuinely nice person who loved the wrong stuff way too much, and himself perhaps not enough...

There are many of us out here who carry a lot of Chandler around inside. I hope his family and loved ones find peace and comfort at this difficult time.

Rory said...

RIP

The fellow playing Frasier's son in the new Frasier episodes sometimes seems to be doing a Chandler impression to me.

Howard said...

This is why you should always hot tub with a friend. He was the only likable character on that show. He dealt with a lot of demons in his life which was cut short. A sad reminder of the challenges everyone faces no matter what their level of Fame and success. Go easy, bro

Roger Sweeny said...

How do you drown in a hot tub?

MayBee said...

I wonder if he had a heart attack after the Pickleball.

So sad, man. He created a whole speech pattern and a whole way of delivering humor.

Oligonicella said...

I never cared for Friends but of what I saw I thought he was the only decent member of the cast.

Ann Althouse said...

"How do you drown in a hot tub?"

I put some time into researching that last night.

We don't know that he drowned. He might have had a heart attack or some other medical problem and then slipped underwater, but it's probably more likely that a medical problem caused unconsciousness and inability to do anything about slipping underwater, so the direct cause of death is drowning.

And then it's possible that hot water had something to do with losing consciousness. Look it up. I'm seeing warnings not to go in a hot tub alone. You could pass out from the heat. This could happen in a very hot bath.

Remember that Whitney Houston drowned in the bathtub. Yes, drugs were involved (and may have been involved with Matthew Perry), but the direct cause of death was drowning.

Could it be suicide? How could you drown yourself intentionally in such a small amount of water? I'd say it's like the way people kill themselves with a plastic bag over their head: Drugs are used to get to unconsciousness and the planned lack of oxygen ensures finality.

Oligonicella said...

"How do you drown in a hot tub?"

Get drunk. Happens frequently.

Ann Althouse said...

Note: Don't kill yourself.

Ice Nine said...

I tried to watch this seven minute video but could only last four minutes. For the same reason that I could never get into this show. The unfunny, stiffly-delivered gags became unbearable; the canned laughter iced the deal.

Eva Marie said...

Perry posted a photo of himself 5 days ago, If that’s the hot tub he drowned in, it’s a huge hot tub.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cyuv2zDrL0r/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

rcocean said...

were drugs involved? You can be sure if they were, the family has zero interest in making that public. Remember when Williams died, the family were initally very cagey about how Robin died. The truth came out later.

How many people, not on drugs/alcohol, die in hot tubs? Most healthy people might fall asleep, but would wake up when their nose/mouth hit the water. In the place where I grew up, a couple homeless drunks would die every summer. They got drunk, passed out, and the tide would come. Finis. I never heard of any sober person drowning.

Sorry Perry died. He'd probably be alive if narcotics weren't defacto legal. Cant say much about Friends, I always found it boring. I liked Seinfeld much better.

Joe Smith said...

I am one of the few humans on earth who has never seen a 'Friends' episode.

But he seemed like a good guy with some issues.

We all have issues, but we're not all famous.

So whatever empathy you have for Perry, try to summon that up for the average Joe just going through life...

Yancey Ward said...

This was very sad to learn of last night. I was a big fan of Friends- the cast and the characters are just about my age. Matthew Perry seemed like a decent guy- someone you would like to have as a real friend- charmingly witty and self-deprecating.

MadisonMan said...

Kudos for the choice of the accompanying video. I'm laughing. Dark, but I'm laughing.

Eva Marie said...

rcocean said...
were drugs involved? Remember when Williams died, the family were initally very cagey about how Robin died.”
An autopsy on Robin Williams found no alcohol or illegal drugs in his system:
“The results released by the Marin County sheriff's office found that the actor had taken prescription medications, but in ‘therapeutic concentrations.’”
“More than six years after his death in 2014, a documentary called "Robin's Wish" revealed details about Robin Williams's final days and aimed to raise awareness for Lewy body dementia (LBD), a progressive form of dementia that Williams was diagnosed with following his death by suicide at the age of 63.”
“In the last year of his life, Robin experienced a startling pattern of behavior. His friends, family, and film colleagues could tell he was not himself as he began exhibiting symptoms like confusion, forgetfulness, paranoia, hallucinations, anxiety, personality changes, and difficulty with movement.”
According to his widow the resultant depression led to his suicide

Enigma said...

Roger Sweeny: "How do you drown in a hot tub?"

I knew a woman who -- after a long day of hiking -- relaxed in a mountain inn hot tub. She passed out from fatigue and altitude, and went under. Without others around she'd be dead.

Jupiter said...

I guess you had to be there. Pretty sure I wasn't.

Joe Smith said...

In his own words...

https://twitter.com/GlobeLoveAffair/status/1718591963958550915

Bender said...

All death is tragic.

But Perry's death doesn't mean that Friends still doesn't suck. And his character was annoyingly awful.

Roger Sweeny said...

To all those who responded to my question, "How do you drown in a hot tub?", thanks.