Matthew Perry has admitted he can't watch any episodes of Friends back after opening up on his battle with alcohol and drugs.
Perry, 53, famously starred as Chandler Bing in the hit TV series Friends which aired from 1994 to 2004. The show made all of the actors overnight celebrities, with fans still watching in their millions to this day.
While the series might be just as popular with fans, Perry himself won't be sitting down to watch any of it back anytime soon.
The actor revealed in a new interview with Canadian broadcaster Tom Power at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto, discussing his tell-all memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, that seeing himself in different stages of his addiction in the show is too hard for him.
Watch the full interview here:Perry had opened up about his struggles with addiction that almost took his life in his autobiography, which was released last month.
The Friends star has now elaborated further on the revelations within his book, telling Power that he can't watch any of the hit comedy back as it reminds him of past struggles.
He explained: "I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go: 'drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine.'"
"I could tell season by season by how I looked," he added. "That’s why I don’t wanna watch it because that’s what I see."
The actor went on to reveal that he can tell what drugs he was taking at the time of shooting based on his appearance on screen, and this only adds to the hardship of watching his past work.
He continued: "I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people — and that’s why I can’t watch the show, 'cause I was brutally thin."
The star added that he would never be under the influence whilst on set because he had "too much respect" for his co-stars.
Perry admitted that he was "envious" of his co-stars - David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and Courteney Cox - adding: "The thing that always makes me cry... is that it’s not fair. It’s not fair that I had to go through this disease while the other five didn’t."
Perry revealed that he would often be on set hungover and would have to make a conscious effort to stop himself from shaking so it wasn't noticeable to his colleagues and the fans watching the show.
When the show came to an end, there were understandably a lot of tears from the cast and crew, but Perry revealed that he "felt numb" and was unsure whether this was due to his struggles with addiction, or because he was "generally dead inside".
He did reveal that he intends to start watching it whenever he feels the time is right.
If you or someone you know is battling addiction, please reach out for help and contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA's) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (1-800-662-4357) or go to https://findtreatment.gov/
