Matthew Perry and Hank Azaria at the premiere of Azaria’s “Nobody’s Perfect” in 2004.Photo:J. Vespa/WireImage
J. Vespa/WireImage
Hank Azariais paying tribute to one of his longtime friends,Matthew Perry, in light of the actor’s sudden death Saturday.
“Matthew was the first friend I made in Los Angeles, when I moved there. I was 21, he was 16,” Azaria said as he started the lengthy tribute to his friend, who he praised as “the funniest man ever.”
“Matthew and I became really good friends and we were really more like brothers for a long time. We drank a lot together, we laughed a lot together, we were there for each other in the early days of our career,” theSimpsonsactor said.
Hank Azaria and Matthew Perry at the US Open celebrity men’s singles in 2002.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
“I really loved him. A lot of us who were close to him felt like we lost him to drugs and alcohol a long time ago because — as he documented in his autobiography — there was so much suffering,” Azaria continued, adding ofPerry’s 2022 memoir,Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, “I had to pick up and put down that biography, like, 11 times, it was so painful for me to read.”
The actor reflected on how Perry’s struggles with addiction affected their friendship as he is a recovering alcoholic himself.
“I’m a sober guy for 17 years, and I wanna say that, the night I went into AA, Matthew brought me in. The whole first year I was sober, we went to meetings together,” Azaria continued. “He was so caring and giving and wise. And he totally helped me get sober. And I really wish he could’ve, you know, found the – found it in himself to stay with the silver life more consistently.”
“But it’s heartbreaking, for those of us who loved him and knew him really well, personally. We just missed him. We just missed him. It’s one of the terrible things about this disease, is it just takes away the person you love.”
Azaria praised his late friend’s comedic skills in the tribute, too.
He concluded, “As an actor, he was so brilliant. I just wish we – the world — I and the world — could have gotten what the rest of his career would’ve been.”
Matthew Perry and Hank Azaria attend the ET/Glamour Emmy Party in 2002.J. Vespa/WireImage
TheFriendsactor’s struggle with alcoholism and addiction was one he documented publicly, as Azaria noted. In a cover story for PEOPLE last year, Perry said of sharing his story, “I wanted to share when I was safe from going into the dark side again. I had to wait until I was pretty safely sober—and away from the active disease of alcoholism and addiction—to write it all down. I was pretty certain that it would help people if I did.”
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In 2021, Azaria admitted thathe had actually tried to get a role like Perry onFriends, but despite auditioning twice for the role of Joey, it ultimately went toMatt LeBlanc.
“Matthew Perry is actually a very dear friend of mine, and so we all read the script,” he toldJames Cordenon an episode ofThe Late Late Show.“We didn’t know it was going to be the huge phenomenon it turned into, but we knew it was great, and we were all so desperate to be in it.”
Azaria eventually got his wish, though, as he became a recurring character in later seasons asDavid, the boyfriend of Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow).
source: people.com
