Matthew Perry says that nasty remarks he made about Keanu Reeves in his memoir released last autumn, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing will be omitted from future copies.
The 53-year-old Friends actor raised eyebrows last year and issued an apology after he asked why Reeves ‘still walks among us’ when peers such as River Phoenix and Chris Farley had died prematurely.
The Williamstown, Massachusetts native appeared Saturday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, where he said on a panel that ‘any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.’
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the NBC smash hit, lamented on the mistake at the event, where he promoted the book.
‘I said a stupid thing … it was a mean thing to do, Perry said, adding that he has ‘apologized publicly to’ the John Wick actor.
The latest: Matthew Perry, 53, says that nasty remarks he made about Keanu Reeves in his memoir released last autumn, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing will be omitted from future copies. Pictured at the LA Times Festival of Books at USC
Perry said that he made the decision to omit the comments about Reeves, in part, because the actor is a neighbor of his.
‘I pulled his name because I live on the same street,’ Perry said, adding he has not personally told Reeves he is sorry for the comments, but would if he has the opportunity to.
‘If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize – It was just stupid,’ he said.
In the book released this past November, Perry referenced Reeves when speaking about the October 31, 1993 death of Phoenix, who Reeves appeared opposite in 1991’s My Own Private Idaho.
Perry wrote: ‘River was a beautiful man inside and out – too beautiful for this world, it turned out.
‘It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?’
Perry referred to Reeves a second time when reflecting on Chris Farley’s fatal overdose in December of 1997.
He said: ‘I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.
Perry raised eyebrows last year and issued an apology after he asked why Reeves ‘still walks among us’ when peers such as River Phoenix and Chris Farley had died prematurely. Reeves was pictured earlier this month in LA
The Williamstown, Massachusetts native appeared Saturday at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books at USC’s Bovard Auditorium, where he said on a panel that ‘any future versions of the book will not have his name in it’
Amid a backlash, Perry issued an apology about the references to Reeves in his book. He said in a statement: ‘I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.’
A source close to Reeves told Us Weekly that the A-lister ‘thought the comments came out of left field,’ adding, ‘It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize.’
Although Reeves has called Phoenix one of his ‘closet friends of that era,’ according to the Irish Times, Perry also had a strong connection with the rising star after the future TV mainstay made his feature film debut opposite him in 1988’s A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon.
In his memoir, Perry describes how their time filming the movie in Chicago helped establish a strong bond, while also tagging another presumed jab at Reeves.
‘River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,’ he writes.
Phoenix famously died of a combined drug overdose from heroin and cocaine outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood, and Perry writes that he ‘heard the screaming from my apartment; went back to bed; woke up to the news.’
He added that he broke down in sobs after learning his friend had died.
Perry’s jabs and Reeves weren’t limited to their mutual connection to Phoenix, though.
Although Reeves has called Phoenix one of his ‘closet friends of that era,’ Perry also had a strong connection to him after he made his feature film debut opposite Phoenix in 1988’s A Night In The Life Of Jimmy Reardon; Phoenix and Reeves in My Own Private Idaho
He also blasted the John Wick star in another aside while discussing his late friend Chris Farley, who died in 1997 at age 33 of a drug overdose from combining a stimulant (cocaine) with a depressant (morphine), a similar concoction to the speedball that killed Phoenix.
Perry and Farley had starred together in the critically reviled Christopher Guest–directed comedy Almost Heroes, which was released in the year following Farley’s death.
‘I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out [about Farley’s death],’ he writes, adding, ‘Keanu Reeves walks among us.’
Aside from his grievances about other actors, Perry delved into his extensive history with drug addiction in his memoir and in recent interviews, which may have made the deaths of Phoenix, Ledger and Farley particularly painful.
While speaking to People earlier this month, he revealed that his colon ruptured as a result of his opioid addiction when he was 49. Doctors gave him only a two percent chance of survival, and the medical emergency left him in a coma for two weeks, followed by months more in the hospital.
He required 14 surgeries to help repair all of the abdominal damage, and he admitted to having gone to rehab 15 times over the years in hopes of kicking his drug addiction.
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Matthew Perry says nasty remarks about Keanu Reeves will be omitted from future copies of his memoir
