52 pages • 1 hour read
Matthew PerryFriends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 6-7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 6 Summary: “Bruce Willis”
The memoir returns to 1999. Perry lives alone in a luxurious house overlooking Los Angeles. He accepts the lead role in The Whole Nine Yards, costarring Bruce Willis. During filming in Montreal, the actors stay in the same hotel, and Willis hosts parties in his suite. Perry takes Xanax to help him sleep after days spent filming and then drinking with his costar. He realizes that while Willis likes to “party,” he can also stop. Meanwhile, Perry fears his addictions will kill him. Four years later, Perry and Willis star in the sequel, The Whole Ten Yards. The movie fails to live up to the original.
In 2001, Perry leaves the Malibu treatment center free of addictions and cravings. Expressing gratitude to Jamie Tarses for supporting him, he then breaks up with her, saying he needs to focus on his sobriety. In reality, Perry wants to have sex with as many women as possible. He begins every date with a well-practiced speech explaining his disinterest in commitment. During this period, he meets many “perfect” women but ends the relationship if they show signs of emotional attachment. One of them is Natasha Wagner, the daughter of Natalie Wood. Years after they stop seeing each other, Natasha calls Perry to tell him she and her partner have had a baby girl. Perry cries, realizing he could have had a child with her.
Perry becomes a sponsor and advisor to other people who have alcohol addictions. At the same time, he embarks on season nine of Friends. He remains sober for the whole season and is nominated for an Emmy. However, his sobriety does not last. When a girlfriend becomes distressed at his lack of commitment, Perry takes three Vicodin from her bedside table. Soon, he is drinking and taking pills again.
“All Heaven Breaking Loose”
The author describes another relapse after two years of sobriety. While undergoing detox, his father and a sober companion move in with him. However, Perry secretly keeps Xanax in his bedroom. One night, he takes eight Xanax to help him sleep. Experiencing hallucinations on waking, he believes himself in danger from a giant snake. Perry tells his father and companion he has taken Xanax, and they call a doctor.
Waiting for his assistant to pick up his prescribed medication, the author prays to God for help. A golden light bathes the room, and Perry feels euphoric and reassured. Convinced that he has been in the presence of God, Perry remains sober for two years. He also embarks on his longest romantic relationship, lasting six years.
Chapter 7 Summary: “The Benefit of Friends”
In January 2004, the last episode of Friends is made. The other cast members cry, but Perry feels numb. He is taking Buprenorphine (an opioid used for detox), to which he now has an addiction.
Perry is nominated for an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and a SAG award for his starring role in The Ron Clark Story—a movie about a teacher in a Harlem high school. He also receives Emmy nominations for appearances in the acclaimed TV show The West Wing. However, the poor performance of The Whole Ten Yards damages his reputation, and his movie roles dry up. Breaking up with his girlfriend Rachel, Perry feels lonely and “lost.” He starts drinking and using drugs again and moves house often. Finally, he experiences the golden light moment and becomes sober.
When Perry is offered a role in Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, he believes it is his next big break. There is substantial excitement around the show, run by The West Wing creators Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. Like Friends, Studio 60 is supposed to be an ensemble show with all actors receiving the same fee. However, Perry feels he cannot accept $50,000 per show. As his is the most prominent role, he negotiates $175,000. In contrast with Perry’s experience filming Friends, he finds that Sorkin rejects his ideas, and actors are told to stick rigidly to the script. The show fails to find a sufficiently large audience and is canceled after a single season.
The author is 36 when he meets a new girlfriend at her 23rd birthday party. For two years, they keep to his rules of no commitment. However, realizing he loves her, Perry has an artist paint a romantic picture of them as a Christmas present. He plans to propose when he gives his girlfriend the painting, but fear prevents him.
Perry writes the sitcom Mr. Sunshine. He plays the leading role, but the show is short-lived due to low ratings. While making Mr. Sunshine, he relapses into addiction. Next, he stars in Go On, playing a widowed sports talk radio host. This show, too, is canceled after one season. Perry again relapses and enters a treatment facility in Utah.
“Pockets”
The author recalls his experience at a strict treatment center in New York. Doctors refuse his pleas for drugs. Also, patients must take a urine test if they leave the premises. Perry tries to get around this rule by picking up drugs, performing a urine test on his return to the center, and then taking the pills. However, his counselor learns that a drug deal occurred outside. Perry denies involvement, but the pills are found in his coat. Doctors order him to leave, and he is sent to a center in Pennsylvania.
Chapters 6-7 Analysis
In Chapter 6, the author disrupts the roughly linear chronology of his narrative by returning to 1999. Describing his friendship with Bruce Willis, he again explores The Nature of Addiction. While noting that “Bruce was a partier” (151), he perceives a crucial difference between his own alcohol use and that of his friend. Willis has an “on-off button” (151), meaning he can stop drinking whenever he chooses. Meanwhile, Perry’s addiction means he cannot control his alcohol consumption, even when work necessitates it.
The author describes himself as a “tourist in sobriety” during this period (141). Although he achieves periods of abstinence, they do not last. Perry recognizes that drinking and drug taking is a crutch he reverts to in times of crisis. For example, one stretch of sobriety ends when he cannot placate a distressed girlfriend. In this section, Perry emphasizes the futility of many of his attempts at recovery. Even when his father and a sober companion move in with him to support his recovery, he is taking Xanax in secret. This story illustrates the powerful hold his addiction has on him. Meanwhile, in the Interlude “Pockets,” he describes attempting to deceive doctors in a rehabilitation center by taking drugs immediately after complying with a urine test. In both cases, the strength of his addictions overcomes his desire to be sober.
The author highlights the perpetual internal conflict of addiction, describing it as “a monster in my brain” (152). He returns to his critique of treatment facilities, suggesting that they financially exploit “sick needy people” without providing long-term solutions to addiction (180). After spending millions of dollars on ineffective rehabilitation, Perry wonders how The Fantasy and the Reality of Fame interacts with addiction and questions whether his fame enabled his addiction: His wealth meant he could always afford drink, drugs, and the subsequent expensive recovery process.
In the Interlude “All Heaven Breaking Loose,” the author describes a spiritual turning point in his life. Perry compares his vision of a golden light, and the accompanying sense of well-being, to the “lightning-bolt-through-the-window” Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson claims to have experienced (159). Perry perceives this experience as a sign from God, marking a reversal of his earlier “Faustian” pact, when he prayed for fame. Having appealed for divine help with his addiction, he receives it. The experience prompts a period of sobriety, and although Perry relapses again, his belief in the presence of God remains a comfort.
The conclusion of Friends serves as another watershed moment for Perry. The happy ending for Chandler, now married and a father, causes Perry to realize that “Chandler had grown up way faster than I had” (163). Assessing his life, he acknowledges that his own character arc has failed to progress. The conclusion of Friends also marks the end of professional certainty and routine for Perry. The author admits that “Friends had been a safe place, a touchstone of calm for me” (165), and its ending proves unsettling. While the actor’s future initially looks bright, his subsequent projects do not live up to their promise. For example, Perry’s experience shooting Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip is anti-climactic. Although he negotiates a higher fee than is initially offered, his earnings do not come close to the sums he received for Friends. He feels creatively stifled, and the show is a commercial disappointment. Perry’s post-Friends experience drives home an important point about the difference between The Fantasy and the Reality of Fame: Even after starring in one of the most popular and longest-running sitcoms of all time, Perry is still not in complete control of the direction of his career.
Perry’s inability to maintain long-term romantic relationships continues to feature in this section of the memoir. The author portrays himself in an unflattering light, describing how, because of The Fear of Abandonment, he hurts many women by abandoning them. Recounting how he broke up with Jamie Tarses and his unnamed fiancée after both supported him through rehabilitation, the author admits his ingratitude. He also satirizes the selfishness of his younger self, providing a word-for-word reproduction of the speech he delivered to each new date. The distinction between the author and Perry’s younger self is apparent as he regretfully describes his present loneliness and the “perfect” women he chose not to settle down with. While he names some of these former girlfriends, such as Natasha Wagner, Perry elects to withhold the names of others. While she is unnamed in the memoir, his younger girlfriend of six years has been identified as Mean Girls star Lizzy Caplan.
