Matthew Perry felt like he was "going to die" while shooting every episode of 'Friends'.
Matthew Perry
The 51-year-old actor - who played Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom from 1994 to 2004 - admitted he was gripped with nerves because the show was shot in front of a live audience, with their reactions driving potential script changes, and he lived in terror of them not finding his performance funny.
Speaking on the show's reunion special, he said: “To me, I felt like I was going to die if they didn’t laugh.”
“It’s not healthy, for sure, but I would sometimes say a line and they wouldn’t laugh and I would sweat and just go into convulsions if i didn’t get the laugh I was supposed to get. I would freak out.”
Matthew's admission shocked his co-stars.
Lisa Kudrow replied: “You didn’t tell us that. I don’t remember you ever saying that.”
Matthew admitted: "I felt that every single night”.
But one person Matthew never had to worry about making laugh was former co-star Maggie Wheeler, who played Chandler's on/off girlfriend Janice in the early seasons of the show.
The actress confessed on the special that she'd created Janice's famous honking laugh because she'd have been in "big trouble" otherwise because she found her co-star so funny.
She said: "When Matthew started speaking I knew he was going to crack me up. I knew that if Janice couldn’t laugh on set or laugh at that moment, I was going to be in big trouble and that is why that laugh exists."
Creator Martha Kaufman also revealed how the audience's reaction led to Chandler being paired up with Monica Geller (Courtney Cox) for the long-term as the pair were originally just meant to have a one-night stand during the one-off London episode, but the reveal of them in bed together convinced them the relationship would be a hit.
She said: "The audience just went wild. We had to just keep the cameras rolling."
Tagged in Lisa Kudrow Matthew Perry Courteney Cox