Quinta Brunson Wanted To Stop Production After Jennifer Aniston's Reaction To A Certain Friends Ques

October 13, 2024

Highlights

The Friends cast remains close, even after Matthew Perry's passing, celebrating milestones and supporting each other through group chats and one-on-one conversations.
Jennifer Aniston gets emotional discussing Friends, recalling memories with Perry and expressing her love for the show and her castmates.
Aniston reflects on Perry's battle with addiction, highlighting their close bond and how she wishes she could have done more to help him.

Friends is turning 30 on September 22, 2024, just a month before Matthew Perry's first death anniversary. So when Abbott Elementary's Quinta Brunson asked Jennifer Aniston about the show's birthday in Variety's Actors on Actors, the latter couldn't hold back her tears. According to sources, the Friends cast has been closer than ever since Perry's tragic passing.

They stay in touch on "group chats" and do "one-on-ones" that include "ongoing discussions" about celebrating the series' milestones, including the finale's 20th anniversary, which was on May 6. But while Courteney Cox still gets "visits" from Perry following his death, Aniston remains broken up about the "huge void" the actor left. The Morning Show star played an important role during Perry's long battle with addiction.

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Quinta Brunson Asked To Stop Filming When Jennifer Aniston Started Crying Over Her Late 'Friends' Co-Star Matthew Perry

On June 7, 2024, Aniston got emotional when Brunson asked her what it's like to watch Friends now. "Oh God, don't make me cry," said the former who could barely hold her tears back. The latter responded, "I won't... We won't make each other cry," to which the We're the Millers alum said, "Okay." But then Aniston started crying, so Brunson offered to take a break. "You're already crying," she said. "Do you want a minute? We don't have to talk about..."

The LolaVie founder explained, "I'm sorry I just started thinking about..." (likely referring to Perry). Brunson immediately said, "I know, yeah. Are you sure we don't have to...." Aniston said she was "okay" and "it's a happy tears" before wiping her tears and saying, "And we're back." They then joked about Friends being as old as the Rumor Has It star. Brunson said, "So Friends is turning 30," to which Aniston added, "And I'm turning 30." She then shared a premiere memory including Perry and Lisa Kudrow.

"It's so strange to even think that it's 30 years old, 'cause actually, I remember the day that it was going to premiere, you know on television on NBC."

As it turned out, the day of the premiere, Aniston and Perry played a messy prank on Kudrow during her hair appointment. "Me and Matthew Perry were having lunch somewhere, and we knew Lisa was getting her hair colored," she recalled. "So we ran into the hair salon and I snuck up and she was in the sink the hair bowl and I took the nozzle and just started like washing her hair from the guy that was supposed to be doing it."

That was how "excited" they were back then. "And it definitely flew out of control and that. And that was unfortunate, but the excitement we had," Aniston continued. "And it feels like yesterday, that day... So the fact that[Friends] has had this long wonderful life and it's still... means a lot to people is one of the greatest gifts I think all five of us, all six of us ever – we never could imagine." She went on to call her co-stars "family forever".

The Friends cast was the first group to negotiate an equal individual salary of $100,000 per episode in 1997 (season 4). They were each paid $22,000 per episode in season 1.

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Jennifer Aniston Spoke To Matthew Perry The Most Among The 'Friends' Cast During His Battle With Addiction

In 2004, Aniston notably broke down in tears while talking to Diane Sawyer about Perry's battle with addiction. "What doesn't Matthew know?" Sawyer asked the emotional actress. "That he's all right," replied the Wanderlust star. "We didn't know. We, you know, we weren't equipped to deal with it."

"You know, nobody had ever dealt with with that, and you know at the idea of even losing him," Aniston added while wiping her tears.

In 2022, Sawyer spoke to Perry about his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. When asked about Aniston calling him out on his drinking on the set of Friends, the actor said: "Imagine how scary a moment that was. And I said, 'How? I thought I was hiding it so well.' And she said, 'We can smell it.'"

He then admitted that he "wasn't in a position to stop" back then as "that's what addiction is." However, Aniston "was the one that reached out the most," for which Perry was "really grateful." He eventually went to rehab several times, accumulating a $9 million bill for his sobriety. Here's a timeline of his tumultuous journey to recovery:

1997	Perry went to rehab for the first time due to a Vicodin addiction; he was at the Hazelden center in Minnesota for 28 days but soon relapsed after
2000	He spent two weeks in the hospital for alcohol-related pancreatitis; his looks drastically changed from season 6 to season 7 of Friends
2001	He decided to seek help and the production of his film, Serving Sara was put on pause
2002	He went back to filming Serving Sara and Friends after two and a half months in a private treatment facility
2011	He announced he was going away for a month to focus on his sobriety
2013	He opened the Perry House, a sober house for men in Malibu
2018	He was hospitalized for three months after undergoing surgery to repair a gastrointestinal perforation
2022	He released his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing where he opened up about his near-death experience following his opioid abuse at age 49. "The doctors told my family that I had a 2 percent chance to live," he said. "I was put on a thing called an ECMO machine, which does all the breathing for your heart and your lungs. And that's called a Hail Mary. No one survives that."
2023	Perry died at age 54 due to "acute effects of ketamine"; he was reportedly getting ketamine infusion therapy for his mental health issues

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Jennifer Aniston Said Matthew Perry Was "Healthy" And "Not Struggling" The Day He Died

In her first-ever interview since Perry's passing, Aniston told Variety that her longtime friend was "happy" and "healthy" up until the day he died. Fans initially assumed that the 17 Again alum wasn't sober during his last days. "He was happy. He was healthy. He had quit smoking. He was getting in shape. He was happy — that's all I know," the Cake actress said while crying. She even told her Morning Show co-star, Reese Witherspoon, that she was just texting Perry the morning of his death.

"I was literally texting with him that morning, funny Matty," Aniston recalled. "He was not in pain. He wasn't struggling. He was happy."

She further clarified the speculations about Perry's death, saying: "I want people to know he was really healthy, and getting healthy. He was on a pursuit. He worked so hard. He really was dealt a tough one. I miss him dearly. We all do. Boy, he made us laugh really hard."

Among the Friends cast, Aniston was the most affected by Perry's passing. "In recent years, Jen spoke to Matthew the most of anyone in their old gang, but she still wishes she could’ve done more to help him," a source said in November 2023. Another insider later claimed that Aniston "was in pieces for months" and that "even now it's something she finds difficult to reconcile."

Matthew Perry left some of his $120 million fortune to his ex-girlfriend .

Friends

ComedyDramaSitcom Release Date September 22, 1994 Cast Jennifer Aniston , Courteney Cox , Lisa Kudrow , Matt LeBlanc , Matthew Perry , David Schwimmer Seasons 10 Directors David Crane , Marta Kauffman

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