As a die-hard Friends fan since day dot, I was absolutely thrilled by every single second of the Friends: Reunion trailer and subsequent promo, and even teared up a bit (barring the inclusion J*mes C*rden. Actually I did tear up during his part, but it was a different kind of tears). Meanwhile, other Friends fans and media folk watched it and decided to go HAM on Matthew Perry because he had the AUDACITY to age and it’s pretty fucken’ gross, aye.
We all know that age-shaming is rife in Hollywood, but that’s not the only thing at play here. It’s a well-known fact that Matthew Perry has battled addiction his whole life, particularly during his time on Friends throughout its run from the nineties to the noughties, and because he now has a few wrinkles on his face (time will do that to ya) and stumbles on his speech here and there, punters are making downright mean accusations that he’s unwell because he didn’t look like he once did in a PEOPLE promo clip.
Newsflash: It’s called growing up, mates, and it’s happening to you as well as we speak.
One article by Page Six is titled: ‘Matthew Perry stuns fans with slurred speech in ‘Friends’ reunion promo.’
The first line reads, “Matthew Perry slurred his words and had a thousand-yard stare in a video to promote the much-anticipated “Friends” reunion — leaving fans worried about his well-being.”
It continues:
“At one point, Perry sounded slurred while answering a question about whether he ever took a souvenir from the old set after the end of the show in 2004.
I stole the cookie jar that had the clock on it,” he said, pronouncing a distinct ‘sh’ sound at the beginning of ‘stole’.”
If you actually watch the video, he fumbles a word or two but like, I literally just got out of our morning staff meeting and I’m sure I fumbled several words and I’m not on anything but caffeine.
Not only are they pulling at straws here, but they’re making insinuations about Matthew Perry’s health which is an incredibly damaging thing to do, especially given his history of addiction and all the progress he’s made since then.
Watch the clip for yourself and you’ll see what I mean:
I’m glad to see I’m not alone in thinking this, ‘cos amongst the negative Matthew Perry tweets, there are many positive that agree with my point.
I’m not gonna drop any of the negative tweets here, but have a read of a coupla positive ones, defending Matthew Perry:
It’s really disheartening whenever Friends is brought up and people feel the need to talk shit about Matthew Perry’s appearance. He’s struggled with addiction and been through so much but y’all are so concerned about his looks when you should just be grateful he’s still alive.
— Strawberry Fields ミ☆ (@sunflxwervolsix) May 19, 2021
let’s not use the friends reunion to make fun of the way matthew perry looks these days. people age, funnily enough. matthew has been through A LOT since friends wrapped up in 2004. be respectful instead of judgmental. hard block me rn if you think making fun of him is funny.
— maree 🏴 (@chndlerz) May 19, 2021
Matty Galea is the Entertainment Editor at Pedestrian who also dabbles in woo-woo stuff like astrology and crystals and has been penning horoscopes since the start of his career. He also Tweets about pop culture and astrology and posts spicy content on Instagram.
