“Friends” star Matthew Perry wanted to be remembered for helping others.
And that is how people are remembering Perry, who passed away at age 54 in his home on Saturday.
Producer and comedian Hank Azaria posted a video on Instagram talking about his long-time friendship with Perry. He said, “Matthew was the first friend I made in Los Angeles.”
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“We were really more like brothers for a long time,” he went on. Azaria talked about drinking and laughing with Perry.
Then he noted, “In person, he was just the funniest man ever. He just lived to laugh.”
Arazia also explained how Perry’s struggle with sobriety affected their friendship,
He said, “A lot of us who were close to him felt like we lost him to drugs and alcohol a long time ago.”
He discussed the pain of reading Perry’s autobiography but then explained, “From a recovery perspective, I mean I’m a sober guy for 17 years, I want to say that, the night I went into AA Matthew brought me in. The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together.”
“As a sober person, he was so caring and giving and wise, and he totally helped me get sober,” he concluded.
Perry experienced a very public battle with alcohol and pills, but turned his Malibu home into a men’s sober addiction recovery center in 2013, People Magazine reported. He stated, “The interesting reason that I can be so helpful to people now is that I screwed up so often.”
“It’s nice for people to see that somebody who once struggled in their life is not struggling anymore,” Perry added.
In 2015, Perry was honored by the Phoenix House Rehabilitation Center with the Phoenix Rising Award, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Upon receiving the honor he joked, “I’m an award-winning alcoholic, I guess.”
He then declared, “I shouldn’t be getting an award; Phoenix House should be getting an award.”
Perry advocated for sobriety and helping others. Actress Mira Sorvino posted to X, formerly Twitter, noting, “I want to leave Matthew Perry’s own words here as the way we remember him.”
I want to leave Matthew Perry’s own words here as the way we remember him. There will never be another like him- he lit up so many hearts in so many ways. Godspeed to Paradise! pic.twitter.com/rUYSeD7tW0
— Mira Sorvino (@MiraSorvino) October 29, 2023
She shared an excerpt from his autobiography where he wrote about his wish for how he wanted to be remembered.
He wrote, “I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my life. I’m still working through it personally, but the best thing about me is that if an alcoholic or drug addict comes up to me and says, ‘Will you help me?’ I will always say, ‘Yes, I know how to do that. I will do that for you even if I can’t always do it for myself.’”
He concluded, “When I die, I know people will talk about ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends,’ ‘Friends.’ And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun or my struggles on the world wide web… but when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if ‘Friends’ were listed far behind the things I did to help other people.”