- Matthew Perry punched a hole in Jennifer Aniston's dressing room when he heard Chris Farley died.
- The actor shares the anecdote in his upcoming memoir: "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing."
Chris Farley's death hit Matthew Perry hard, as the actor revealed he punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston's dressing room wall on the set of "Friends" when he heard the news.
Perry, 53, shared the anecdote in his upcoming memoir "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," set to be released on November 1. In an excerpt from the book, published by The Sunday Times, the actor discussed how his opioid and alcohol addiction took hold of him early in his career. His battle with addiction coincided with Farley's, who died at age 33 from a drug overdose, Rolling Stone reported.
In 1997, Perry, known for his portrayal of Chandler Bing on "Friends," co-starred in "Almost Heroes" with Farley. At the time, Perry said he was taking up to 55 pills a day of Vicodin, the brand name for a painkiller that combines the opiate hydrocodone with the over-the-counter pain reliever acetaminophen, Healthline reported.
"Then, Chris Farley died," Perry wrote. "His disease had progressed faster than mine had. (Plus, I had a healthy fear of the word "heroin," a fear we did not share.)"
His reaction to Farley's death was visceral. "I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston's dressing room wall when I found out," he wrote. Aniston, 53, starred alongside Perry on "Friends" throughout 10 seasons of the NBC hit show.
Not only that, Perry wrote that two weeks after Farley's death, he had to promote their film, which he said the pair "barely" finished due to their addictions.
"I found myself publicly discussing his death from drugs and alcohol," Perry wrote. "I was high the entire time."
"No one knew — not my family, my friends, no one," he added.
Eventually, his castmates and crew on "Friends" caught on. At one point, Aniston approached him and said she knew he was drinking because they could smell it on him. "To be confronted by Jennifer Aniston was devastating," Perry wrote.
But during a sit-down interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC News on Friday discussing his memoir, he said he was "grateful" for Aniston speaking out looking back.
"She was the one who reached out the most," Perry said of Aniston, who he referred to in the interview as "Jenny." "I'm really grateful to her for that," he added.