Matthew Perry: a jerk or a good guy?

I just took it as admiring her body. Guys like looking at women.

Well someone on the Matthew Perry death thread (part 1) got very offended by it.

I thought the Keanu remark was pretty shitty but Perry seemed ok overall. Although, he hung out with Shannen Doherty in his 20s and she’s an evil cunt.

A jerk

He seems to have maintained good relationships with people he worked with, even a long time ago. He texted Ione Skye a week before his death, and they worked together in 1988.

He was a pretty big homophobe. Unashamed of it, too.

[quote]Although, he hung out with Shannen Doherty in his 20s and she’s an evil cunt.

Alyssa, stop. She has cancer you know.

Doesn’t matter now

He shat on Keanu. That did it for me. Keanu is an infinitely better person than he ever was.

He shouldn't have written the book. He could've stayed a lovable fuck up but instead came off like a bitter grudge collector who had a creepy vibe with women

[Quote]He shat on Keanu.

Pics?

Closeted

R6 That was pretty sweet of LeBlanc apologize.

I don't know, Ross Matthews would grate on my last nerves if he was interviewing me, and I'm a queen too. I might sympathize with anyone being a jerk to Ross, although I think he's a bit better these days.

Well, OP, I would dearly love to be pretty enough to be objectified--at least once in a while!

He thought he created sarcasm, referred to it as Mattspeak

I just listened to him in this. He sounded a little out of it and kind of an ass. He mentioned a few times about helping people and paused for the luke-warm applause that followed every time he said it. He seems to think he was a really big deal. I never watched "Friends" so I don't know but somehow I doubt it. I'll lean towards jerk, OP.

I agree he shouldn't have written the book. The book tour interviews made him unlikeable.

People like him are the reason people who Need pain medicine are having a hard time getting treated.

R6 Mathews is annoying as hell so I don’t blame them

Ross is okay in small doses.

Are these the only two choices?

Being rude to Ross Matthews makes you a homophobe?

A very decent person with a terrible addition problem. Sad.

A jerk or a good guy? He was an addict for fuck's sake. They're all angry, abrupt, inappropriate, disconnected from normal emotions, sad and angry and happy for no reason, . You can't judge them the same way you judge regular people, they're fucked up.

[Quote]A very decent person with a terrible addition problem. Sad. - Susan Dey

Maybe Matthew was killed by a small foreign fraction.

R6 How on earth does that make him a "pretty big homophobe" and "Unashamed of it, too?"

Ross Matthews is an annoying pig.

Oh well, Matthew Perry died.

He's a bitch, he's a lover. he's a child, he's a brother. he's a sinner, he's a saint.

Who knows? None of us knew him. Anyone who thinks they did just because they saw him on TV is a damn fool.

I didn't know him literally, but I feel I know him figuratively through viewing his work.

[Quote]He's a bitch, he's a lover. he's a child, he's a brother. he's a sinner, he's a saint.

Did anybody touch his taint?

I read most of his book and he came off as a bitter bitch toward women, his parents, his dentist. A jerk.

[QUOTE] I read most of his book and he came off as a bitter bitch toward women, his parents, his dentist. A jerk.

And that would also describe 90% of DLers. Big deal.

Well, OP asked. I’m just chiming in.

Link to read his book for free?

You take the good you take the bad

Obviously I didn’t know him as well, but based on excerpts from his book he sounded bitchy and unlikeable. The Keanu Reeves comment alone is inexcusable, the sort of thing you shouldn’t say about anyone.

Did he get much criticism for the Reeves comment and his bitchiness outside of Datalounge?

R39 yes he did. Keanu is beloved. Perry was not.

Perry was not beloved, but Chandler Bing was. Which is why we're seeing the enormous outpouring of grief for Perry.

He chose to be in the public eye but at the same time we all have our good and bad days, days where we don’t treat others kindly, etc. Amplify that with addiction and the press reporting on every move you make, most times getting it somewhat wrong. It’s a losing game.

Again he choose this life , but I don’t think it’s fair to judge it in a vacuum.

Could he BE anymore of a jerk?

Spending your last day meeting an Instagram girl half your age and playing Pickleball. Pretty empty life.

vapid and shallow

He’s a creep. I think he never emotionally matured and so the way he talks about women is like a boy in HS. Except he is 50 and society has evolved from 1980 so it’s cringey and at times offensive.

He’s an angry and bitter guy. He definitely wrote the book because it was awful and he came across terribly. He basically wished death on Keanu (twice) and trash talked tons of costars, doctors, rehabs, the Friends cast, his real life “friends”, his parents, etc. He talks like someone who has done a ton of therapy but never changed anything internally - mommy blaming, treating women like shit but blaming his “fear of intimacy”, etc.

R42, agree about the bad days but the Keanu comment was not blurted out drunkenly in an interview talkshow. It was written down, revised, and seen fit for publication.

What was his beef with Keanu? That he didn’t od and die like River? The kind of thought best left unwritten.

Much of the book feels like Perry missed all cultural evolution over the past 30 years. Like he had no idea MeToo ever happened. Or that most women even work (a lot of his resentment towards his mom is for very mundane, first-world shit like taking a work call after taking a day off to hang out with him).

And he seemed to have no idea that Keanu went from jokey stoner shit actor to extremely popular and generous huge movie star. Or maybe Perry was jealous because Keanu has become such a huge well-loved star and Perry was just famous for Friends and his addictions. He never explains why but he bizarrely mentions Keanu by name twice so it was definitely targeted.

Apart from the one about Keanu still being alive, what was the other thing he said about him? Thanks

[R50] Perry uses the same Keanu slam twice at 2 different points in the book. Says Keanu should have died instead of River and then later says Chris Farley should have outlived Keanu.

Completely agree with r46 and r49. I'd asked whether he received outside criticism at r139 because I half-wondered if he thought he'd be immune to commentary or critique. You know, "poor Matty, he's been through so much, if we say something negative it might be a stressor that leads to relapse." And it would provide him another opportunity to point his judgemental finger.

I haven't read the book, but the excerpts and commentary here make him sound like a resentful adolescent boy which fits the theory that social and emotional development become frozen when the addictive behavior begins. I guess he's had marshmallow therapists and AA sponsors. The latter appear to have failed to impart the taking responsibility for his own actions and behavior aspects of AA's 4th & 5th steps.

I gotta wonder if he and Jonah Hill share the same crappy therapist.

Did he have a great ass, and didn’t live forever?