George Clooney says Matthew Perry's 'Friends' role didn't bring late actor 'joy, happiness or peace'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In a Q&A session with Deadline, George Clooney opened up about his late friend, Matthew Perry, who died in October after drowning in his hot tub. 

During the interview, the 62-year-old actor remembered 'ER' and 'Friends' being launched in the same year, 1994, and how they worked side-by-side on the soundstage. Moreover, he delved into his thoughts regarding Perry being unhappy while working on 'Friends'. 

Geroge Clooney remembers his friendship with Mattew Perry

On being asked about Perry's death, Clooney said, "I knew Matt when he was 16 years old. We used to play paddle tennis together. He’s about 10 years younger than me." 

He continued, "And he was a great, funny, funny, funny kid. He was a kid and all he would say to us, I mean me, Richard Kind, and Grant Heslov, was, I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth."

Perry eventually got to play Chandler Bing on ‘Friends’, which became one of the iconic characters of American TV, but he was not happy, as per Clooney.

Geroge Clooney says he just knew Matthew Perry wasn't 'happy' while working on 'Friends' 

Subsequently, Clooney said, "He got on probably one of the best ever. He wasn’t happy. It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace. And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him."

The 'Ocean's Eleven' star added, "We just knew that he wasn’t happy and I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff."

Clooney further noted, "And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life."

Matthew Perry died due to acute effects of ketamine

Perry was 54 when he was discovered dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles residence on October 28, and the cause was said to have been accidental drowning. 

Recently, in an autopsy report one of the reasons behind his cause of death has been said to be acute effects of ketamine. 

The 'Friends' actor, who has had a long battle with substance abuse, was supposedly seeking treatment from ketamine infusion clinics that help deal with problems of mental health. 

The Los Angeles Coroner's Office released Perry's autopsy report, noting that the "contributing factors in Mr Perry's death include drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death is an accident."

Besides, medical examiner Raffi Djabourian reportedly explained, "At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression."