We are all aware of the name Chandler Bing! Aren’t we? A few might be still wondering who this Chandler Bing guy is. You might have come across a sarcasm page on Instagram with his famous laughing picture. That’s the guy I am going to talk about. The humourous guy that people loved Chandler AKA Matthew Perry in the American TV show Friends for 10 seasons. But season 3 of Friends is special in many ways for Chandler Bing fans. In the 3rd season, people noticed an unexplained weight loss of Matthew in 2000. So, what was the reason for his sudden weight loss in 2000?
Here through this article, you will get to know the exact details of Matthew Perry’s weight loss. But before going deep into his sudden & drastic weight loss, I would like to share some personal details about his life that you might don’t know.
So, let’s get started, my Friends.
Table Of Contents
Who Is Matthew Perry?
The popular king of sarcasm- Chandler Bing was acted by Matthew Perry in the most loved television sitcom FRIENDS, which aired from 1994 to 2004. Matthew Perry is an American-Canadian actor who was born on 19 August 1969 in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His full name is Matthew Langford Perry. He lived with his mother in Ottawa, Ontario after his parents got divorced. At a young age, he developed a good interest in tennis and won many junior-level tournaments, and was declared a top-notch junior-level player.
As he became a teenager, his mind started diverting toward pursuing an acting career. At 15 years of age, Matthew left Ontario and settled in Los Angeles to start his acting career. In Sherman Oaks, he enrolled in Buckley School and graduated in 1987. Later, he studied improvisational comedy at the Sherman Oaks LA Connection.
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After this, he played Chazz Russell in the TV series Second Chance. Perry made his first film debut in 1988 in A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. In 1989, Matthew Perry was seen in a three-episode plot of Growing Pains. While continuing with the guest roles, Perry finally got cast for a regular role in 1990 for the CBS sitcom Sydney. He was also seen in other sitcoms like Beverly Hills and Home Free until he cracked the role of Chandler Bing in FRIENDS. This is the role for which Matthew Perry is loved worldwide. After the huge success of FRIENDS, Matthew was seen in many other series and movies.
Matthew Perry Weight Loss 2000
We saw a huge change in the appearance of Matthew Perry during the whole series and here is the actual truth behind it. Perry was continuously attending a 28-day rehab program for his serious addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs in 1997 while filming for FRIENDS.
He lost tremendous weight after attending the 28-day session and it dropped down to 145 pounds which was evident in season 3. But as we go further in season 7, Perry looked more lean and thin and very weak. He felt regular pain in his stomach and was hospitalized later. It was found that he develop pancreatitis, an inflammation in the pancreas due to his addiction.
This happened in 2000 and he lost 20 pounds of body weight while struggling with pancreatitis. Later in 2001, he was sent to rehab because of his extreme addiction. The actor also revealed in an interview that at a point in time he was so addicted to drugs that he even consumed 55 Vicodin pills a day which reduced his weight by 128 pounds during FRIENDS. He later in an interview added that doctors declared him nearly dead and had a 2% chance of living. He recovered from it and didn’t let his health hamper his character on screen.
Matthew Perry Addiction
At the age of 13, Perry took his first shot at drinking, and from that day it continued with more and more drinking every year. In 1997, he met with a jet ski accident and this was the time when the doctor prescribed him painkillers. But he continued to take the pills even after his recovery and said that it made him feel like never before. He was sent to rehab for a 28-day session during the filming of FRIENDS.
He was very thin in season 3 and sources revealed that he did not remember any event from that season, he acted according to the script and did not interact much with the cast. In 2000 when season 6 and 7 of FRIENDS was aired, fans couldn’t help but notice the sudden change in the physical appearance of Matthew Perry.
Perry drastically lost weight and it was a question that bothered every fan what Perry was going through. Later, it was discovered that Perry was again on addiction to drinking and prescription drugs which go by name Vicodin and Methadone.
He made rules of not drinking in the set but later contradicted his own statement as he would come to shoot with an extreme hangover. In 2001, Perry began drinking constantly in the sets of Serving Sara. Later he realized his actions and chose to get admitted to rehab. We are glad that our sarcasm king is healthy and totally away from the witchy spells of addiction at present.
Matthew Perry Memoir
Matthew Perry wrote an addiction memoir based on his life and name it “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing”. The book is going to be released on 1st November by Flatiron. In this book, he wrote about his long-caged story of addiction.
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He mentioned the ransom that he spent for sobriety which was $9 Million. He started writing the book on his phone notepad back in the rehab hospital to note down all his life incidents and within no time he hit 110 pages. His manager encouraged him to keep going with his writing and today it gave birth to a book. He mentioned an interesting fact in his memoir that he used to fake injuries and back pains at set while he was consuming 55 Vicodin pills a day.
He includes an important message for all the readers that struggle to overcome their addiction. Matthew conveys to the strugglers to unleash their true inner selves and realize that they are not addicts. When recording his own audiobook, Perry he felt pity for the life of the man he was depicting and later realized that the man he was talking about is himself and remembers all the struggle and hardships he went through.
From nearly dead to publishing a memoir of his life, we found back our Matthew Perry!