Matthew Perry pulled out of Don't Look Up after his heart stopped for 5 minutes
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Matthew Perry shared insight into his departure from Adam McKay's star-studded political satire Don't Look Up.
The Friends alum, as it turns out, was set to portray a Republican journalist in the film centered on two astronomers (Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio) who embark on a futile media tour to warn humankind about an approaching comet that will wipe out the planet. In his forthcoming memoir, Perry recounts another Earth-shattering event wherein his heart stopped beating for five minutes during his time in rehab for alcohol and drug abuse, thus leading to his exit from the film.
While at a rehab treatment center in Switzerland, Perry lied to his doctors and said he had severe stomach pain so they could prescribe him medication, as he was unable to curb his addiction, he recalls in Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (out Nov. 1). "In fact, I was OK," Perry writes (via Rolling Stone). "It still felt like I was constantly doing a sit-up — so it was very uncomfortable — but it wasn't pain."
Matthew Eisman/Getty Images Matthew Perry
The doctors prescribed him hydrocodone and, ahead of a surgery for the pain, administered propofol, which is used for anesthesia.
"I was given the shot at 11:00 a.m.," Perry recounts. "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. I was told that some beefy Swiss guy really didn't want the guy from Friends dying on his table and did CPR on me for the full five minutes, beating and pounding my chest."
"If I hadn't been on Friends, would he have stopped at three minutes?" the actor muses. "Did Friends save my life again? He may have saved my life, but he also broke eight of my ribs."
Perry revealed that he was supposed to have three scenes with star Meryl Streep, but with the pain of the procedure he made the "heartbreaking" decision to exit the film, which he called "the biggest movie I'd gotten ever." While he filmed a group scene with Jonah Hill and the other stars, it didn't make the final cut. "I was on 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone then, too, but nobody noticed," he writes of his time on set.
Niko Tavernise/Netflix Jonah Hill and Meryl Streep in 'Don't Look Up'
The film didn't work out, but Perry learned an important lesson. "I was hirable in something big without putting on a show," he writes. "In that meeting, Adam and I had just been two men talking. I will treasure that moment, that day, that man. What a good guy. And I sincerely hope our paths cross again."
The actor dives deep into his alcohol and opioid abuse in the memoir, which also shares behind-the-scenes stories about his time on the hit sitcom Friends. According to Perry, costars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc supported him during his addiction.
"It's like penguins. Penguins, in nature, when one is sick, or when one is very injured, the other penguins surround it and prop it up," Perry recently told PEOPLE. "They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own. That's kind of what the cast did for me."
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing hits bookshelves Nov. 1.
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