In the wake of Matthew Perry‘s tragic death, his Friends costars have been fondly remembering the moments they shared with the on-screen funnyman. Lisa Cash – an actor who had a brief guest star role in the beloved sitcom in 1999 – is the latest person to share her experience working with Matthew, even revealing the one scene he refused to film.
Lisa appeared in the iconic “The One In Vegas: Part 1” episode from Season Five. You know, the one where the gang go to Las Vegas to visit Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chander (Matthew Perry) is pissed when he finds out Monica (Courteney Cox) had dinner with her hot, aged-like-a-fine-wine ex Richard (Tom Selleck). Meanwhile, Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) wind up drunkenly getting married.
One of the greats, if you ask me.
Anyway, in the episode we know and love, Lisa played a flight attendant. But in an interview with TMZ, she revealed that she originally had a much bigger role – one that would have thrown the Friends universe as we know it in jeopardy.
“I came in as a guest star and I was super excited,” Lisa said, per TMZ.
“The scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing in Vegas about having lunch with Richard.
“Initially in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room, orders room service and I bring it up to him as a hotel worker. We end up talking and laughing and connecting and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character.”
Because the show was filmed in front of a live audience, Lisa explained that they’d already made it through all of the rehearsals for the scene but something wasn’t sitting right with Matthew.
“The day before we were shooting in front of a live audience, I was told that Matthew went to the writers and said the audience would never forgive Chandler for cheating on Monica,” she said.
“He was probably right! That would’ve changed possibly the course of the show and his character.”
WOAH. I couldn’t agree more.
Chandler was my favourite character growing up. But after everything those two had been through, I don’t think I would’ve been able to forgive him for cheating on Monica. That would’ve been one step too far.
Stories about Matthew Perry have been flowing since he passed away on October 28. On November 4, his emotional funeral in LA saw his friends, family and, of course, his Friends co-stars unite to celebrate his legacy.
In his memoir, which was released in 2020, he told the world how he’d like to be remembered after death.
“When I die, I know people will talk about Friends, Friends, Friends. And I’m glad of that, happy I’ve done some solid work as an actor, as well as given people multiple chances to make fun of my struggles on the world wide web… but when I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to try to help other people. I know it won’t happen, but it would be nice,” he wrote.
While Friends is absolutely mentioned in connection with the star as we reflect on his life, I hope he rests easy knowing how many people have also remembered him for how much he’s helped others with their own battle of addiction.
