Matthew Perry and his co-stars on Friends became superstars worldwide when the show first aired in 1994. When the show ended a decade later after ten seasons, the six main actors were financially set for life. However, there is more to life than money, and for Matthew Perry, his alcoholism and addiction was only just beginning.
Together, the Friends cast became more than great friends, they became a family. At the same time, it was impossible for fans not to speculate whether some of them had any romantic relationships with each other. There were some rumors surrounding the subject, but in fact, the six actors had a deal.
While Matthew Perry dated several well-known actresses before, during, and after Friends aired, there was one he, according to US Weekly, never got over. His co-star and on-screen love, Courteney Cox.
There are few television sitcoms more famous – and popular – than Friends. The now iconic show about six young adults trying to figure out their lives in New York City is still viewed all around the world, having been streamed more than 1 billion times since its release.
Back in 1993, Friends creators Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane were at low points in their careers, not knowing what the next step would be.
How ‘Friends’ was createdThey had just had an unsuccessful run with a sitcom called Family Album, but then, they got an idea. As they became nostalgic, thinking about finishing college and moving to New York City, things started to move.
“We were looking at a time when the future was more of a question mark. Maybe because that’s what we were feeling at the moment, but looking at that question mark and going: that’s interesting. Everybody knows that feeling,” Marta Kauffman told NBC in 2004.
By December 1993, they had a seven-page pitch ready for a show called Insomnia Café.
“It’s about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything’s possible. And it’s about friendship because when you’re single and in the city, your friends are your family,” read parts of the pitch.
NBC liked the idea and bought it. At the same time, Kauffman and Crane had begun writing the pilot episode for the script. It was titled Friends Like Us, though the show was eventually changed to simply Friends.
Kauffman and Crane had started working on the show and, as for every series, the casting process was extensive. In the end, they had settled for six people for the main characters; David Schwimmer was cast as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as his sister, Monica Geller, Jennifer Aniston got the part of Rachel Green, Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow got the role of Phoebe Buffay, and finally, Matthew Perry was cast as the hilarious Chandler Bing.
As mentioned, the casting process was not a bed of roses. And for Matthew Perry, he was lucky that he even landed the role!
Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing on ‘Friends’
In fact, in the beginning, Matthew was not even trying out for the part – he was coaching the actor meant to play Chandler.
“We thought Chandler was going to be a quick, easy role to cast, and that wasn’t the case. Craig Bierko was very much a contender for Chandler. A lot of people loved him for that role; I was not one of them who loved that idea,” former NBC President Warren Littlefield told the Emmys.Co-creator Marta Kauffman added, “Matthew Perry actually coached Craig Bierko for his audition. It wasn’t what Bierko wanted to do at the time. He went to Broadway after that.”
David Crane, also one of the creators of Friends, said, “We played around with (Chandler’s sexuality) a little, but not in a real way. We talked about it when we were casting. But once we cast Matthew, I don’t think we ever considered making Chandler gay. But there is a Liza Minnelli joke in the pilot where Chandler’s talking about a dream.”
As mentioned, Matthew Perry was, at first, not the first pick for the role of Chandler Bing. But it wasn’t only because there was another actor he competed with; he also already had another job.In 1994, when he had taken the job on the pilot for LAX 2194, Perry got word from his “terrible” manager that he was broke. At the same time, he had read the script for Friends and thought it was “hilarious and great.”
Sadly, he was under contract for LAX 2194, meaning that Friends was basically out of the question.
“There was this part that was perfect for me, and it was making me crazy that I couldn’t go up for it because [of] the baggage handlers show,” he added. “I was losing my mind.”
“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year”Luckily for Perry, the executive at Fox called the pilot “the worst thing we’ve ever seen in our lives” and proceeded to tell Perry that he was free to leave.
“‘He is available. You can hire him for your little show called Friends Like Us that then became Friends,’” Perry recalled the executive saying.
In his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew Perry wrote about the role of Chandler, saying it was the role he practically was born to play.“It was as if someone had followed me around for a year, stealing my jokes, copying my mannerisms, photocopying my world-weary yet witty view of life,” he wrote. “It wasn’t that I thought I could play Chandler. I was Chandler.”
With casting done – which Friends creator Marta Kauffman confirmed was a challenging process – the show was set to film. From the first time the six actors gathered on set for rehearsals, Kauffman knew something big would happen.
“The first was our very first rehearsal when we had all six of them onstage for the first time, and they read the scene in the coffeehouse. I got chills up and down my spine and thought, ‘This is special. There is something about these six, this script for them, that’s special,’” she told Rolling Stone Magazine.The six main characters in Friends all had their own style. Chandler Bing, portrayed by Perry, was the comedian, being very sarcastic and having a great sense of humor…CONTINUE READING