George Clooney Claims Longtime Friend Matthew Perry “Wasn’t Happy” While Filming ‘Friends’: “It Didn’t Bring Him Joy Or Happiness Or Peace”

Matthew Perry might have been living his dream playing Chandler Bing on Friends — but according to the late actor’s longtime friend George Clooney, the hit sitcom “didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace.”

While promoting his new film, The Boys in the Boat, Clooney reflected on his decades-long friendship with Perry, who was found dead in his hot tub at the age of 54 back in October.

According to Clooney, the Fools Rush In star was only 16 years old when they met — and even then he had big dreams of starring in a sitcom someday.

“He was a great, funny, funny, funny kid,” Clooney told Deadline. “He was a kid and all he would say to us, I mean me, Richard Kind and Grant Heslov, was, ‘I just want to get on a sitcom, man. I just want to get on a regular sitcom and I would be the happiest man on earth.'”

While Clooney pointed out that Perry landed “one of the best” sitcoms ever when he was cast on Friends, the director claimed he still “wasn’t happy.”

“It didn’t bring him joy or happiness or peace,” he recalled. “And watching that go on on the lot — we were at Warner Brothers, we were there right next to each other — it was hard to watch because we didn’t know what was going through him.”

Clooney continued, “We just knew that he wasn’t happy and I had no idea he was doing what, 12 Vicodin a day and all the stuff he talked about, all that heartbreaking stuff. And it also just tells you that success and money and all those things, it doesn’t just automatically bring you happiness. You have to be happy with yourself and your life.”

Perry had been open about his previous struggles with addiction, though his former castmate Jennifer Aniston said he sounded “happy” and “healthy” when they texted the morning he died. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office later determined that Perry, who had been undergoing ketamine infusion treatment to help with anxiety and depression, died from the “acute effects of ketamine.” Other contributing factors included “drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder),” per Variety.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.