Matthew Perry Reveals Weird Hatred For Keanu Reeves In Candid New Book
Matthew Perry opens up in his new book about an odd preoccupation with hating ‘The Matrix’ icon, Keanu Reeves.
Update 10/27/2022: Matthew Perry apologized for his comments and backtracked on the odd, unexpected hatred of Keanu Reeves. “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu,” Perry said in a statement to PEOPLE. “I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”
Original: It turns out that Friends actor Matthew Perry 53, isn’t exactly “friends” with everyone — he reportedly reveals an aversion to fellow star Keanu Reeves in his new memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” an excerpt from the book, which is poised to hit shelves November 1, reads. Matthew and Keanu both had a personal tie to River — Per Page Six, Keanu and River were close pals, while Matthew starred with the late actor in 1988’s A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. River famously died in 1993 at a Hollywood club at the age of 23, and Matthew expressed his grief at the loss. “River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out,” he reportedly wrote. “It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down.”
While getting things off his chest in the memoir, Matthew, who recently revealed a major battle with drug addiction, also zeroed in on the death of 33-year-old Saturday Night Live comedian Chris Farley in 1997. “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out,” he wrote. “Keanu Reeves walks among us.” Matthew and Chris co-starred in the 1998 movie Almost Heroes, released after the comedian’s death.
The odd preoccupation with The Matrix icon comes on the heels of a previously released excerpt that revealed a dangerous side to his past drug addiction. Matthew claims his family was told he had a 2% chance of living after being hospitalized for a gastrointestinal perforation just four years ago. His colon had burst from the overuse of opioid medications. “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side of everything again,” Matthew told PEOPLE earlier in October. “I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober — and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction — to write it all down. And the main thing was, I was pretty certain that it would help people.”