Matthew Perry bought 100 Xanax pills so he could keep up with Bruce Willis’ partying.
Matthew Perry bought 100 Xanax pills so he could keep up with Bruce Willis’ partying
The 53-year-old former pills and booze addict made the purchase before shooting ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ with Bruce, 67, who he said he “desperately” wanted to befriend.
He said in his memoir, ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing’: “So, I’d gotten ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ and had embarked on a friendship with the most famous movie star on the planet, but even I knew I was drinking way too much to pull this movie off.
“Desperate measures would be needed. Some might be able to party perfectly well and still show up and do the work – but they weren’t addicts like I was.”
He added he thought about buying the huge Xanax haul from a friend to allow him to keep boozing: “This way I can drink with Bruce and the others but then when I’m finally alone I can just pop one of these and go to sleep.”
But Matthew admitted: “I may have been a man with a plan, but I was also ignoring the fact that this was a completely lethal combination.”
The ‘Friends’ actor, who played Chandler Bing on all 10 seasons of the sitcom from 1994 to 2004, added in his book the cast of the 2000 film partied every night on the hotel floor Willis had rented out, and nicknamed Club Z, but were able to show up for work the next day early.
He said: “At night, the parties raged under Bruce’s disco ball in Club Z. Somehow, everyone still managed to show up at 6am for work.
“I say ‘somehow’, but I know how: those hundred Xanax worked like a charm.
“Though combined with my drinking they did tend to make my head resemble a Spalding Basketball. Meanwhile Mr A-list Willis over there looked like he could open an envelope with his chin.”
Matthew landed a role in ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ while relapsing after a period of sobriety.
He added about his hero worship of his co-star: “Bruce Willis did not disappoint – he oozed A-list. He didn’t just take over a room, he was the room.
“Bruce laughed at all my dumb jokes – he seemed to enjoy the spectacle of a younger, funny guy paying his due respect and keeping up with his drinking (if only he knew.)
“I was thrilled to be around him because he knew how to live life... when the veil of Bruce Willis was removed, I just wanted to be his friend. I didn’t want to suck up to him like everybody else in the world.
“But there was a big difference between Bruce and me. Bruce was a partier; I was an addict.
“Bruce has an on-off button. He can party like crazy, then get a script like ‘The Sixth Sense’ and stop partying and nail the movie sober.
“He doesn’t have the gene – he’s not an addict.”
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