Lisa Kudrow Recalls First Meeting Matthew Perry in Tribute to ‘Friends’ Co-Star
After Matt LeBlanc began the Friends stars solo tributes to Matthew Perry on November 14, Lisa Kudrow has rounded them out by sharing a touching memory of the first time she met the late star.
Sharing an old photo of her and Perry seemingly from Friends‘ early days, Kudrow thanked her friend for the years of love and laughter on Instagram on November 15. The touching caption highlighted Perry’s humor, his “open heart,” and his commitment to Friends as he struggled personally. (In the years after Friends ended, Perry was open about his struggle with substance abuse while working on the show.)
“Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts. Then… You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that,” Kudrow wrote. “Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY. Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’ Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant. Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you. Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”
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Perry died on October 28 at the age of 54 after an apparent cardiac arrest that led to him drowning in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. The five Friends stars issued a joint statement about his passing on October 30, saying they were “utterly devastated” by the loss and would share more about their feelings at a later time.
LeBlanc began the solo tributes and was shortly followed by Courteney Cox on November 14. Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer shared their own tributes on Instagram on November 15. All of the tributes include photos from the set of Friends.
“The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life. It was an honor to share the stage with you and to call you my friend. I will always smile when I think of you and I’ll never forget you. Never,” LeBlanc’s post said.
“I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day,” said Cox, whose character, Monica Geller, was married to Perry’s Chandler Bing.
“He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us,” Aniston wrote. “This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.”
Schwimmer referenced one of Perry’s classic Chandler bits in his tribute. Sharing a photo of them in costume in a flashback scene of Ross and Chandler, Schwimmer wrote, “This photo is from one of my favorite moments with you. Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time. I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around— ‘Could there BE any more clouds?’”
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