Matthew Perry discussed another near-death experience that caused him to leave the Netflix film “Don’t Look Up.”
Perry has been open about his years-long battle with addiction and how it nearly cost him his life in recent weeks. An excerpt from his upcoming memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” recently revealed how one of the incidents occurred while filming the 2021 film, “Don’t Look Up.”
The Rolling Stone excerpt revealed that the “Friends” actor spent time in a rehab center in Switzerland while filming.
Perry claims he lied to his doctors about stomach pain. They persuaded him to have surgery, where he was given a Propofol anesthetic drug. He allegedly lied about the severity of his condition to obtain hydrocodone, a narcotic analgesic.
Because he had taken hydrocodone the night before, the combination caused his heart to stop.
He said in the memoir:
“I was given the shot at 11:00 a.m. I woke up eleven hours later in a different hospital. Apparently, the Propofol had stopped my heart. For five minutes. It wasn’t a heart attack-I didn’t flatline-but nothing had been beating.”
The actor went on to say that a medical staff member told him he didn’t want the “guy from Friends” dying on his table. As a result, he gave Perry CPR for five minutes.
Perry then asked if “Friends” had saved him because the doctor would have probably stopped at three minutes.
Although the doctor saved his life, he broke eight of his ribs in the process.
He had to leave the film after the incident because he was in too much pain.
Although he credited the hit show with saving him, he told PEOPLE that it was the show that led to his alcoholism.
Perry began filming the series when he was 24 years old. However, when he turned 34, the actor reportedly hit rock bottom in his addiction battle and weighed only 128 pounds. He began taking 55 Vicodin per day at the time.
He did not say when he became sober, but he told the outlet that he knew everything and had learned much from it.
Perry always looks at the 14 surgery scars on his stomach to help him stay sober. These also give him the impression that he is stronger “in every way.”