Put on a show. Elizabeth Hurley recalled what it was really like to work alongside Matthew Perry in the midst of his battle with addiction.
“I have very fond memories of him,” Hurley, 57, said. Yahoo! Entertainment on Wednesday, November 9, before reflecting on their 2002 romantic comedy, Serve Sara. “To be honest, it was a nightmare to work with him at that time and, as we now know, our film was stopped because of his addiction.”
The Royals alum explained, “We were in a force majeure situation and all had to sit at home twiddling our thumbs for a while.”
Perry, 53, detailed his ups and downs with drugs in his 2022 memoir Friends, lovers and the terrible big thing. In the book, out in stores November 1, the Friends alum revealed that the production on Serve Sara was arrested so he could go to rehab.
He claimed that Hurley and their manager, Reginald Hudlinwere “pissed off” by the closure, which he fully understood.
“It was a little difficult,” the English actress said on Wednesday, noting that when Perry returned to set, “he was fabulous.” Hurley recalled the 17 again the actor in front of “retelling everything that we shot before” his two-month stay in the rehabilitation center.
The funny couple alum, for his part, explained in his book that he re-recorded the film’s dialogue because he was articulating his words the first time around. “Of course, the movie still flopped,” Perry wrote. “I was paid $3.5 million to make the movie and I was sued for the closure, even though it was a health issue. At the mediation table, a team of insurance flacks m faced, so I just wrote them a check for $650,000.”
Hurley explained Wednesday that she was aware at the time that her co-star was struggling. “It was tough, obviously he was going through a tough time, but he was still very charming and a lovely person to work with,” she told the outlet. “But you could see he was in pain for sure.”
The christmas in paradise The star explained that although she hasn’t “read the book yet”, she has skimmed through excerpts from Perry’s memoir.
“It’s quite interesting,” Hurley said of the reveal. “He’s a very funny writer as he is a very funny man. He’s an incredibly gifted comedian…his way with words is fantastic.”
In 1997, Perry became addicted to Vicodin after being involved in a jet ski accident on a film set. He later became addicted to OxyContin following surgery he underwent for a burst colon.
His struggle to stay sober spanned decades — and affected his career and personal life. In his memoirs, the keep on going alum revealed that he was only fully sober for one season of Friendswhich took place from 1994 to 2004.
“People would be surprised to know that I’ve been mostly sober since 2001,” he wrote in the book, admitting he’s spent “over $7 million trying to get sober.”
Perry added, “I’ve been to six thousand AA meetings. (Not an exaggeration, more an educated guess.) I’ve been to rehab fifteen times. I’ve been in a mental institution, I’ve had therapy twice a week for thirty years, I’ve been near death.
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