En esta noticia
Matthew Perry spent close to $9 million over his lifetime trying to get sober, by his own estimate, and a new Netflix docuseries shows how addiction shadowed the “Friends” star from his first taste of fame to his final years.
“The One About Matthew Perry,” a three-part series from director Mary Robertson, premiered on Netflix on Tuesday. It arrives nearly three years after Perry died at 54 from the acute effects of ketamine.
The series draws on archival interviews with Perry and new ones with his sister, Mia Perry Bowick, and close friends. His “Friends” co-stars chose not to participate.
Did Matthew Perry really spend $9 million trying to get sober?
The $9 million figure is Perry’s own. He shared it while promoting his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” In the docuseries, Bowick puts the total at roughly $7 million.
Whatever the exact amount, it paid for treatment that rarely held. Bowick says her brother seldom made it a full year before returning to drugs or alcohol.
One 2011 rehab stay kept him away from the wedding of Roger Castillo, a friend he had known for decades.
How did Matthew Perry’s addiction start, according to the Netflix documentary?
Three years after “Friends” premiered in 1994, Perry hurt himself on a Jet Ski while filming “Fools Rush In.” A doctor gave him Vicodin, which he says brought “incredible euphoria.”
By 2000, withdrawal was making work on the sitcom harder. Production on his film “Serving Sara” was halted so he could enter rehab. In archival footage, he says he had begun to doubt he would survive.
What does the Netflix documentary say about Matthew Perry’s assistant?
The series takes aim at Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in assistant, who is serving 3 1/2 years in prison for distributing ketamine. Bowick had known him since childhood, through his 30 years working for Perry’s manager.
Iwamasa earned $150,000 a year from Perry. In his plea agreement, he admitted buying unlicensed ketamine from several sources. Bowick describes the family’s sense of betrayal and says he could have quit or warned them.
Physician Salvador Plasencia and drug dealer Jasveen Sangha are among the others sentenced in connection with Perry’s death.