‘Friends’ creator wants fans to remember Matthew Perry for ‘joy’

Marta Kauffman wants us to accentuate the positive as we remember Matthew Perry‘s legacy.

Marta Kauffman; Matthew Perry.

VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty; Charles Sykes/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty 

The Friends co-creator recently discussed her relationship with the late actor, who played Chandler Bing on the iconic sitcom. “He is the one I had the most contact with,” Kauffman said in a new 30th-anniversary story for the U.K.’s The Times. “About two weeks before [he died] he and I were FaceTiming and he seemed really good.”

In the same story, the series’ other co-creator, David Crane, reflected on learning about Perry’s struggles with addiction. “By the time we became aware of it, we were already a family on a lot of levels,” he said. “There was a point where we said to him: ‘Do you want to stop [being in the show]?’ And he was adamantly like: ‘No, this is really important to me.'”

Shortly after Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine last year, Kauffman, Crane, and executive producer Kevin Bright released a joint statement to Entertainment Weekly about the actor. “It still seems impossible,” the trio said of his death. “All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives.”

The statement continued, “He was a brilliant talent. It’s a cliche to say that an actor makes a role their own, but in Matthew’s case, there are no truer words. From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us.”

Elsewhere in the statement, the trio said, “We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment — not just to his work, but in life as well. He was always the funniest person in the room. More than that, he was the sweetest, with a giving and selfless heart. We send all of our love to his family and friends.”

In an interview with Today after Perry’s death, Kauffman said she was worried about him while shooting the 2021 Friends reunion special. “Knowing that he’d been through everything he’d been through, and every time he had surgery, they’re giving him opioids for pain and the cycle starts over again,” she said, “I was concerned about what point in the cycle he was [in] in that moment.”

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that five people have been charged in connection with Perry’s death: doctors Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez; Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa; the actor’s acquaintance Erik Fleming; and Jasveen Sangha, who is known as “the Ketamine Queen,” prosecutors said.