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Matthew Perry Seemingly Has Bitter Feelings About Keanu Reeves

Author Laila Abuelhawa
Actor Matthew Perry attends Phoenix House's 12th Annual Triumph For Teens Awards Gala at the Montage Beverly Hills on June 15, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. Actor Keanu Reeves attends the Canadian Premiere of "The Matrix Resurrections" held at Cineplex's Scotiabank Theatre on December 16, 2021 in Toronto, Ontario.

Now this is something we never thought we’d hear: Matthew Perry has an apparent hatred of Keanu Reeves. In his new tell-all memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, out November 1, the Friends alum writes about his disdain for Reeves’ life as he is struck with tragedy.

“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry writes in the memoir. His first movie, 1988’s A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, Perry acted alongside Reeves’ longtime best friend River Phoenix. In the film, Perry plays Phoenix’s best friend and they became close while filming in Chicago. River tragically overdosed at age 23 in 1993.

Perry, 53, writes, “River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down.” Perry recounted the day he heard the news of Phoneix dying outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood adding, “I heard the screaming from my apartment; went back to bed; woke up to the news.”

Elsewhere in the book, Perry gets another dig in at Reeves following Chris Farley’s death at age 33 in 1997. Perry co-starred with Farley on the 1998 comedy Almost Heroes. At this point, Perry was battling addiction at the height of his Friends fame. Once again, Perry didn’t think it was fair that Reeves was still alive, writing, “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

As we earlier reported, Perry revealed to the New York Times that after his Friends character, Chandler Bing, married Monica Gellar (Courteney Cox) in the season 7 finale, he was “driven back to the treatment center …in a pickup truck helmed by a sober technician.”

He revealed he started drinking at age 14 and later become addicted to opioids which lead to going to rehab 15 times and having 14 surgeries on his stomach. According to Perry, he’s now been sober since early 2021.

'Friends': All Thanksgiving Episodes Ranked

  • 10. The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs (Season 7, Episode 8)

    Compared to the other Thanksgiving episodes, “The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs” just doesn’t measure up, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great moments. Seeing Ross frustrated by Chandler’s 50 states game is super funny, and learning Chandler doesn’t like dogs is one of his more ridiculous quirks. Side note: Clunkers is an adorable name for a dog.

  • 9. The One With the List (Season 2, Episode 8)

    Following his magical first kiss with Rachel after her drunken “I am over you” phone call, Ross has to figure out whether or not to break up with his girlfriend, Julie. How does he figure that out? By making a pro/con list with Chandler which hits the fan as soon as Rachel sees it. Meanwhile, Monica gets a job at a firm and is tasked with coming up with Thanksgiving recipes for their new product, Mockolate, a chocolate substitute. A great episode, but it just lacks that Thanksgiving zest other episodes have. However, it does have Michael McKean guest-starring as Monica’s new boss and Phoebe’s song “Two of Them Kissed Last Night.”

  • 8.  The One With Rachel’s Other Sister (Season 9, Episode 8)

    Rachel’s sister, Amy (Christina Applegate), unexpectantly shows up and is rude to everyone. (Applegate won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her performance.) Joey forgets to show up to appear on a float in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with his fellow Days of Our Lives castmates. Monica is freaking out over using her wedding china during Thanksgiving dinner. There’s also drama around who would raise newly born Emma if both Ross and Rachel died. Basically, this episode is more stuffed with Thanksgiving hijinks than any turkey.

  • 7. The One Where Underdog Gets Away (Season 1, Episode 9)

    You never forget your first, and “The One Where Underdog Gets Away” helped set the bar for Friends Thanksgiving episodes to come. A series of random events lead to the gang spending the holiday together. (However, Joey’s reason involving becoming the poster boy for V.D. after a modeling gig gone wrong is the funniest.) We also learn Chandler’s disdain for the holiday stems from his parents announcing they were divorcing on Thanksgiving when he was a young boy. As a result, he doesn’t eat any traditional Thanksgiving food and opts for a feast of tomato soup, grilled cheese, and a large bag of Funyuns. That feast saves the day after dinner is ruined because everyone is locked out of Monica and Rachel’s apartment due to checking out the Underdog balloon that escaped from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtD4fozYIgk

  • 6. The One With Chandler in a Box (Season 4, Episode 8)

    How do you win a friend back after kissing his girlfriend? You do some serious thinking inside a box, or at least that’s how Joey and Chandler attempt to resolve their issues. Monica provides some hilariously awkward moments trying to get involved with the son of her ex-boyfriend/ophthalmologist, Richard, after a fateful eye injury. We also learn Rachel always exchanges gifts she receives, which puts a wrench in the group determining their “Secret Santa” gift exchange. Plenty of great character moments in this Thanksgiving episode, especially from Chandler who still manages to bring the funny even though he’s hanging out in a box.

  • 5. The One With the Late Thanksgiving (Season 10, Episode 8)

    Monica doesn’t want to host Thanksgiving this year, but she is convinced into doing so by the rest of the group. How do they repay her? By being late, which is a massive Monica no-no. Joey and Ross were at a New York Rangers game, while Phoebe and Rachel were entering Emma in a baby beauty pageant. However, after plenty of arguing, Monica gets over everyone’s tardiness when she and Chandler, who are unable to conceive, receive a phone call from an adoption agency informing them they were getting a baby. A wonderful, feel-good ending to the final Friends Thanksgiving episode.

  • 4. The One With the Football (Season 3, Episode 9)

    Monica and Ross’ sibling rivalry is the centerpiece to this hilarious Thanksgiving episode that sees the group playing a game of three-on-three touch football. The Gellers used to play a football game every Thanksgiving, appropriately called “The Geller Bowl,” and the winner would get “The Geller Cup,” which was a Troll doll nailed to a piece of wood. After a violent “Geller Bowl 6,” Monica and Ross’ dad threw “The Geller Cup” in a nearby lake, and they weren’t allowed to play football ever again. Monica would later reveal she fished the trophy out of the lake and has been holding onto it for years, and it becomes the prize during the three-on-three game. Add to this madness Chandler and Joey attempting to win the same girl, and the entire episode is a prime example of why Friends was so popular.

  • 3. The One Where Ross Got High (Season 6, Episode 9)

    Chandler and Monica, who just moved in together, are hosting Thanksgiving, and Judy and Jack Geller are coming over, but they don’t care for Chandler and don’t know he’s moved in. Rachel, meanwhile, is tasked with making Thanksgiving dessert, but the pages for the recipe get stuck together in the magazine she’s referencing, and she ends up making an English trifle that also has shepherd’s pie ingredients. The episode culminates in an epic confession of various secrets that stun Judy and Jack, but they help them to final like Chandler. It’s basically a Thanksgiving trainwreck/miracle.

  • 2. The One With the Rumor (Season 8, Episode 9)

    Brad Pitt plays Will Colbert, a high school friend of Monica’s, who also struggled with his weight, that’s in New York City on business. After running into him and learning he’s away from home on Thanksgiving, she invites the now-thin Will to dinner. Will didn’t realize Rachel, who he hated in high school, was going to be there. Obviously, wackiness ensues including the reveal that Will started a rumor in high school that Rachel was intersex. This episode is easily one of the most publicized episodes in Friends history thanks to the appearance by Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston at the time. Oh, and Joey’s Thanksgiving pants are classic!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS6UXbdpddQ

  • 1. The One With All the Thanksgivings (Season 5, Episode 8)

    “The One With All the Thanksgivings” is the definitive Friends Thanksgiving episode. The flashbacks, even the ones of Phoebe’s past lives, provide important backstory for the characters. We find out that a rude comment Chandler made about Monica’s weight during Thanksgiving 1987 was the reason why she lost so much weight, and that same comment is also the reason why Monica accidentally cut off Chandler’s toe during Thanksgiving 1988. At this point, Monica and Chandler, as a couple, is still very new and only Joey knows about them. Chandler doesn’t take the stories well, however, Monica makes it up to him by sticking her head inside a turkey (a reference to a flashback of Joey getting his head stuck in a turkey), and Chandler tells Monica he loves her for the first time, thus, sending us slowly down the road of one of the most important relationships in the entire series.

Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.

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