George Clooney’s Friendship With Matthew Perry Dates Back Decades

Since George Clooney and Matthew Perry worked on the same soundstage, Clooney had the opportunity to watch Perry’s “Friends” performances live. Even as Perry was delighting audiences as Chandler Bing, Clooney had the uncomfortable sense that something wasn’t right with his friend. “We just knew that he wasn’t happy,” Clooney explained to Deadline in 2023. At the time, Clooney was unaware of Perry’s struggles with alcohol and opioid addiction. During “Friends,” Perry had a self-imposed rule that he wouldn’t drink or do drug while he was at work. Withdrawal from these addictions sometimes left him feeling awful while he was acting. 

According to Perry, the elation of being famous only lasted eight months. “Then you realize that it doesn’t accomplish anything, it’s certainly not filling any holes in your life,” he explained to The New York Times in 2002. Prior to his desire for acting success, Perry was equally driven as a junior tennis player, spending ten hours each day perfecting his skills. ”I needed to succeed at whatever I was doing so I could feel better about myself,” Perry added.

In contrast, before Clooney was a Hollywood icon, he experienced failures as an actor, including a dozen pilots that never got off the ground. With “ER,” he recognized that there was an element of serendipity in the show’s success. Clooney didn’t take the resulting fame personally, instead choosing to simply enjoy the experience of being on the show.