Elizabeth Hurley and Matthew Perry. Image Source: US Weekly
Elizabeth Hurley talks about working with Matthew Perry.
Elizabeth Hurley who worked with Matthew Perry on the 2022 romantic comedy ‘Serving Sara’ shared with Yahoo Entertainment recently that she has not read the memoir but she has read some excerpts of it and it looks interesting.
The actress refers to Matthew Perry’s recently released memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing in which the actor has detailed his substance abuse struggle along with her time on Friends. Elizabeth added that Matthew Perry is a funny writer, a funny man, and an incredibly gifted comedian and he has his way with words which is just fantastic.
Elizabeth Hurley shared that even though she has very fond memories of him she mentioned that it was an absolute nightmare working with the actor at the time and as everyone knows that their movie was shut down for him to seek medical help to get better and fight his addiction adding they all were in a force majeure and had to sit at home for some time twiddling their thumbs.
Elizabeth Hurley and director Reginald Hudlin were "pissed off" about the shutdown, according to Matthew Perry's book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. Elizabeth Hurley stated that it was difficult for them, but the actor returned and was wonderful to work with. She recounts that Matthew Perry had to reschedule everything that was shot before his stint in rehabilitation due to slurring of words. Elizabeth added that It was tough he was having a tough time, but he was still the charming person to work with adding that but one could see he was suffering for sure.
Matthew Perry was filming Friends alongside Serving Sara. During that time, the actor told ABC News' Diane Sawyer that he was taking Xanax, Methadone, and a quart of vodka every day. He said that it was shot in Dallas at the same time he was doing Friends, so it doubled his workload, and he was flying on a personal jet having a drink vodka out of a water bottle. The actor stated that he weighed 155 pounds and was on his way to 128 pounds and added that he cannot feel sorry for that guy, he's heading through so much, and it's him. And he remembered that, and he had no idea what was going on. He added that he is sorry once more and is grateful to no longer be that.
Matthew Perry disclosed how much money he's spent battling his addictions in a recent interview with The New York Times, admitting that he's spent probably $9 million or something trying to get sober. Matthew Perry claims he was never high while working on Friends because he didn't want to ruin the experience for everyone else, he does admit that his alcohol and drug use had an effect on him in terms of being hungover on set. He clarified that once, while dressed in a suit for a scene in the coffeehouse, he fell asleep right on the couch, and disaster was evaded only when Matt LeBlanc nudged him waking up right before his line; no one started to notice, but he realized how close he had come.
According to a Rolling Stone excerpt from the book, Matthew Perry was originally cast as a Republican journalist in Adam McKay's star-studded apocalyptic event satire but had to pull out due to another medical emergency. Matthew Perry writes that while in a rehab center in Switzerland, he was given the local anesthetic drug propofol before surgery to help with stomach aches, but the drug had serious conversations with the hydrocodone that was already present in his system. He did explain that he was given the shot at 11:00 a.m. and awoke in a different hospital eleven hours later. His heart had stopped due to the propofol. For 5 minutes. It wasn't a heart attack, and he didn't pass out — but nothing was beating.
According to Matthew Perry, he was told that some beefy Swiss guy did not want the actor from Friends to die on his table which is why he performed CPR on the actor for the entire five minutes, until his heart started beating and pounding his chest. Matthew notes that would that Swiss guy have stopped at three minutes if he hadn't been on Friends, the actor continued. Friends, did you save his life yet again? While the man saved Matthew Perry's life, he manage to break eight of his ribs, rendering him unable to return to the set of 'Don't Look Up'. Matthew Perry describes his decision to leave "the greatest movie he'd ever gotten" as "heartbreaking."
