Matthew Perry, 53, revealed that he nearly died about 4 years ago when he had a gastrointestinal perforation caused by abusing opioids. The information is in his autobiography, which hits American bookstores on November 1st.
The star of “Friends”, famous for the role of Chandler Bing, advanced some excerpts to People magazine, to which he also gave an interview talking about the work. The publication reports that he spent two weeks in a coma and, in all, five months in the hospital, in addition to having a colostomy bag for nine months.
“Doctors told my family I had a 2% chance of surviving,” the actor said. “I was put on an ECMO machine [Oxigenação por Membrana Extracorpórea, na sigla em inglês], which does all the work of the heart and lungs. And that’s like shooting on goal in the last seconds of the game. Nobody survives that.”
“Five people were put on the ECMO machine that night, the other four died and I survived,” he said. “The big question is, why? Why was I chosen? There has to be some reason for it.”
Perry recalled that alcoholism began to show when he was cast in the series, aged 24. “It was something that I somehow still managed to control, but at 34, I really got into a lot of trouble,” he said.
According to him, only the ninth season of the sitcom was filmed with him sober from beginning to end. “Guess which season I was nominated for best actor? I think that should have told me something,” he said.
The actor also said that he took 55 tablets of Vicodin, an opioid medication to treat severe pain. “I didn’t know how to stop,” he said.
He said that he tried to hide his addiction, but that he was denounced by the radical changes in appearance – he came to be just over 58 kg. His co-stars, he said, were “understanding and patient.”
Over the years, he has been through rehab clinics on 15 different occasions. “Now I’m pretty healthy,” he celebrated himself. “I need to stop going to the gym so much, because I don’t want to just play superheroes (laughs).”
I have worked in the news industry for over 10 years. I have been an author at News Bulletin 247 for the past 2 years. I mostly cover politics news. I am a highly experienced and respected journalist. I have won numerous awards for my work.
