'He Absolutely Did Not Need To': Sarah Paulson Recalls Matthew Perry Helping Her Get Hired
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Sarah Paulson couldn’t forget how generous Matthew Perry was if she dreamed.
The “American Horror Story” actor, who starred opposite the late actor in the Aaron Sorkin series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip,” recalled him helping her get cast while on “The View” Tuesday.
“I was at a particular place in my career where I needed that job very desperately and he, because of his friendship with Amanda Peet, who was my best friend at the time, who was also on the show, they had done a movie together called ‘The Whole Nine Yards,’” she said.
“So he asked me to meet him in the parking lot for my final audition, and I got in his car and he ran the whole scene with me multiple times so that I could have, you know, a leg up on the other performer,” she continued. “And I did get the job.”
Paulson added that she credits Perry, whom she praised as “one of the most generous people on the planet,” to this day for “taking that extra time,” which she maintained he “absolutely did not need to do.”
The series, which only ran for one season, essentially used “Saturday Night Live” as a template to chronicle the inner workings of a live TV program.
The show came at a pivotal time for both actors, as Perry had recently concluded his time on “Friends” and was seeking other work to define him — and Paulson was eking out her name in shows like “Nip/Tuck” and HBO’s “Deadwood.”
Perry died at his Los Angeles home in October. The “Friends” star, who released his memoir a year prior and chronicled his lifelong substance abuse issues, appeared optimistic about his future at the time.
Paulson said Perry was “one of the most generous people on the planet.”
“He was just the kind of person that if you made him laugh, or if you made him smile, you felt like you had really arrived,” she told the “View” panel. “I had the great pleasure of making him laugh a couple of times and it made me feel really good. He’s a wonderful guy.”
Paulson is back on Broadway after 13 years next week in “Appropriate” — a comedic family drama from Pulitzer Prize finalist Branden Jacobs-Jenkins. The actor took inspiration for her new role from reality TV.
“I’ve been watching ‘Chimp Empire’ on Netflix and I’ve been watching ‘The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,’” she said Tuesday. “There’s one character named … Meredith Marks, and she has a particular intensity that I have decided to abscond with.”
