“If I was just generally dead inside”: Watching His Crush Jennifer Aniston Sob Inconsolably Was Not Enough to Make FRIENDS Star Emotional

Every cast member of FRIENDS is iconic in their own way. Since starring in the most-watched TV show, each of them has had wildly different careers. Jennifer Aniston is undoubtedly the one who became most famous out of the group, but Matthew Perry languished behind.

In his memoir, he talked about how he was overly dependent on drugs and doing stuff like Xanax, methadone, and 55 Vicodin during the shooting of the show. In fact, he was so numb to emotions that he didn’t feel a thing on the last day of shooting even though Aniston was bawling her eyes out.

Matthew Perry Felt Nothing During The Last Day Of FRIENDS 

Still from the last episode of FRIENDS
Matthew Perry, in his memoir called Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, revealed that on the last day of the shooting of FRIENDS, all of his castmates were crying their eyes out. Viewers who have watched the last episode of the hit sitcom still think that Jennifer Aniston has tear stains on her cheeks in the scene where everyone is gathered in the empty apartment room.

However, Perry felt nothing, possibly because of his drug abuse. The actor said:

“We had made 237 episodes, including this last one, called, appropriately enough, ‘The Last One.’ Jennifer Aniston was sobbing — after a while, I was amazed she had any water left in her entire body. Even Matt LeBlanc was crying. But I felt nothing…. I couldn’t tell if that was because of the opioid buprenorphine I was taking, or if I was just generally dead inside.”

In his book, Perry talked about his long struggle with addiction and also mentioned how it was his crush Jennifer Aniston who checked on him the most.

Matthew Perry Revealed That Jennifer Aniston Supported Him The Most During His Recovery
Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston in FRIENDS
Matthew Perry revealed that he had a crush on Jennifer Aniston when they were filming FRIENDS. However, the actress didn’t reciprocate his feelings back and even turned him down when he asked her out. So that went nowhere and they remained just friends.

However, the actor was grateful for the friendship because she was the one who reached out and checked on him the most during his drug addiction recovery. Matthew Perry said:

“She (Jennifer Aniston) was the one that reached out the most. You know, I’m really grateful to her for that.” 

However, this doesn’t mean that his other five castmates didn’t care about him. Actually, they didn’t even know what he was going through in his personal life during the filming. Lisa Kudrow, who portrayed Phoebe Buffray in the show, said:

“I didn’t understand the level of anxiety and self-torture (that) was put on Matthew Perry if he didn’t get that laugh and the devastation that he felt. Which makes a lot of sense.” 

However, it looks like it’s all water under the bridge now because the actor is reportedly recovering well from his long battle with drug addiction.

FRIENDS is available on HBO Max.