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Matthew Perry is being mourned and remembered by those worked with him closely, and those who loved him dearly.
Late on Monday, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer spoke out for the first time on the stunning death of their former Friends co-star.
They did so via a joint statement.
“We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” their message reads.
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
Perry was found dead inside of a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home on Saturday.
The star’s cause of death has not yet been determined, but authorities have said for the record that they do NOT suspect foul play.
The message — signed by Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc and Schwimmer — concluded as follows:
“In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
The cast of Friends was famously close back when the hit show was on the air (from 1994 through 2004).
At one point, they banded together and demanded an equal pay raise across the board.
Perry portrayed Chandler Bing on the sitcom. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2002 for the role.
A housekeeper came across Perry’s body on October 28 and called 911… but it was too late to save Perry.
The apparent drowning incident, according to the law enforcement insiders, was “treated as a water rescue,” E! News now reports.
After news of his death emerged, actress Maggie Wheeler — who played Perry’s onscreen love interest Janice on Friends — reflected on their time together.
“Mathew Perry. The joy you brought to so many in your too short lifetime will live on,” she wrote on Instagram. “I feel so very blessed by every creative moment we shared.”
Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane, as well as the show’s executive producer Kevin Bright, also paid tribute to the late star this week.
“We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened by our beloved friend Perry’s passing,” they said in a joint statement on October 29, adding at the time:
“It still seems impossible. All we can say is that we feel blessed to have had him as part of our lives.
“He was a brilliant talent. It’s a cliché to say that an actor makes a role their own, but in Perry’s case, there are no truer words.
“From the day we first heard him embody the role of Chandler Bing, there was no one else for us. We will always cherish the joy, the light, the blinding intelligence he brought to every moment—not just to his work, but in life as well.
“He was always the funniest person in the room.”
Perry struggled with substance abuse throughout a majority of his time on Friends.
In Perry’s 2004 book Friends … ‘Til the End, he recalled:
“I was 24 when I got on the show. I’ll be 34 when it’s over, and those are really important years in somebody’s life…
“So to do it all in public … was difficult. At first you have the wave of ‘I’m famous, and this is exactly what I’ve wanted my whole life.’
“But then you go through the whole recluse stage where you think, ‘I wish everybody would stop staring at me.’”
We continue to send our condolences to the friends, family members and loved ones of Matthew Perry.
Throughout the actor’s personal struggles, his Friends castmates were by his side.
They were “patient” and “understanding,” Matthew wrote about his costars in his memoir, adding back then:
“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. They walk around it until that penguin can walk on its own.
“That’s kind of what the cast did for me.”
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