Minnie Driver remembers Matthew Perry: 'Anyone who asked him for help, he would help'
The actors shared the stage in a London play in 2003.
Minnie Driver is memorializing her costar Matthew Perry, recalling his ability to lift up the people around him.
In an obituary published by The Guardian, the Good Will Hunting actress remembered the late Friends star, whom she acted alongside in a 2003 production of David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago. "He had been in a good place when we were doing the play, but the thing about him was he was like a light," Driver wrote of Perry. "He was one of those people who just made other people feel good. Somehow, they don't suck you down into their sadness, or their pain, and I know now that his pain was great."
Driver also recalled Perry’s unique balance of sharp wit and reliable kindness. "Matthew was one of the quickest people you would ever come across, ruthlessly funny in the ways he'd react to people," she wrote. "He wouldn't let you get away with anything. Invariably, I would tell really long stories and he'd always do this brilliantly timed bit where he'd nod off in the middle — so funny — but he wasn't mean in any way. He was the most self-deprecating person and really kind. Anyone who asked him for help, he would help."
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Minnie Driver and Matthew Perry in 2002The actress reflected on Perry's conflicted relationship with his Friends fame as well. "Matthew, we mustn't forget, was a very good actor," she wrote. "I recently looked at the reviews for our play — and his were all really good, apart from one. I remember his reaction to it: 'Some people only want Chandler, and I don't know that I'm allowed to be anything other than that.' That character was going to be iconic and beloved for ever, but clearly, there was so much more to him."
Driver continued: "But he knew that Friends was never going to let him go. It was a pretty tight yoke. Part of Matthew's inner struggle was that he was so closely identified with a role that was also beloved to him — one that he was so good at. But it also held him in a specific place, so it felt like a tug of war. I also think if you struggle with addiction and you have this extraordinary, rarefied life where people love you so completely, it's always difficult to come to terms with the possibility of your fallibility."
Driver explained that though she found Perry's 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing tough to read, it ultimately served as a positive force in his life. "I last saw him on his book tour last year. It was such a relief hearing him say that by putting all that tough stuff out there, he'd exorcised it in a way," she said. "I'm incredibly grateful that he got to have the experience of how much people loved that book, and loved him, outside of Friends. Ultimately, it seemed like a positive thing."
Perry died Oct. 28 at 54, from "acute effects of ketamine." His passing inspired an outpouring of tributes from fellow actors and entertainers, including Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Julia Roberts, Zac Efron, George Clooney, John Mulaney, Sarah Paulson, and many more.
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