Matthew Perry’s career, personal struggles and devastating battle with addiction are explored in the upcoming Netflix documentary “The One About Matthew Perry,” which examines the challenges that ultimately preceded the actor’s death.
“I said, ‘God, you can do anything you want to me, just please make me famous,’” the late “Friends” star recalled in a voiceover featured in a trailer released by Netflix on Tuesday. Perry became internationally known for playing the witty Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom.
“I got a phone call [for the role], and I instantly knew my whole life was gonna change,” he said. “But God did not forget the other part.”
In another excerpt, Perry described the initial excitement of fame before realizing that success could not resolve the pain he carried internally.
“This doesn’t do what I thought it was going to do,” he acknowledged.
Perry died in 2023 at the age of 54, as Page Six previously reported.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the actor died from the “acute effects of ketamine.”
His autopsy report also identified drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, an opioid medication, as contributing conditions.
Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy when he died. His former assistant, Kenneth “Kenny” Iwamasa, was later sentenced to 41 months in prison for his part in the fatal overdose.
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“All great stories have comedy and tragedy in them, and that was certainly Matthew’s story,” his sister, Mia Perry Bowick, says in another moment from the documentary trailer.
She also said her brother had allegedly spent “$7 million” in his efforts to become sober.
“That’s how seriously he took his disease,” she said, adding that Perry frequently spoke about “that feeling of emptiness, of loneliness, that he couldn’t fight.”
Perry previously indicated that the total cost of his recovery efforts was even higher.
During a 2022 interview with The New York Times, the “Friends” alum said he had “probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober.”
The actor chronicled his long struggle with substance abuse in his memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
In the book, Perry revealed that he nearly died at 49 after his colon ruptured because of opioid overuse. He spent two weeks in a coma, remained hospitalized for five months and used a colostomy bag for nine months.
“The doctors told my family that I had a two percent chance to live,” he wrote.
The three-part documentary, featuring interviews with friends, former girlfriends and professional colleagues, premieres on Netflix on Oct. 27.