Matthew Perry has revealed a secret disdain for Keanu Reeves in his upcoming autobiography.
In an extract obtained by Page Six, the Friends star wrote: “Why is it that original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”
The 53-year-old - who doesn’t appear to have ever worked with Keanu - made the comments while discussing their mutual friend River Phoenix, who died from a drugs overdose in 1993 at the age of just 23.
“River was a beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out,” Matthew wrote in Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing, which is out on November 1.
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In another apparent dig, the actor continued: “It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down.”
Matthew starred in his first ever film with River, ‘A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon’, back in 1988.
In the book, he reveals he sobbed when River died outside The Viper Room club in West Hollywood, which was owned by Johnny Depp.
“I heard the screaming from my apartment, went back to bed, woke up to the news,” he wrote.
Later on in the memoir, Keanu’s name crops up again when another of Matthew’s pals, Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley, died from an overdose similar to River’s in 1997 aged 33.
By that point Matthew had found global fame as Chandler Bing in hit US comedy Friends.
And for some unknown reason he felt it was unfair that after the loss of two of his friends, Matrix star Keanu was still alive.
“I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room when I found out,” he writes, adding: “Keanu Reeves walks among us.”
Aside from his apparent grievance with Keanu, Matthew discusses his long battle with drink and drug addiction in the book.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, he admitted to “probably spending $9 million trying to get sober ”.
He is doing well at the moment, having recently celebrated his 18-month sobriety milestone – meaning he was newly sober when he appeared on the Friends Reunion TV special in May 2021.
Prior to this he said he felt “grateful to be alive” after almost dying when his colon burst due to his opioid addiction when he was 49.
Doctors gave him a two per cent chance of survival, but after spending two weeks in a coma and months in hospital, he came out the other side.
To date, Matthew has had 15 stints in rehab and at his worst says he was popping 55 pills and drinking a litre of vodka a day.
Speaking about how readers will take his new book, he said: “I think they’ll be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came.
“I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn’t surprise anybody. And that’s a very scary thing to be living with.”
*Matthew Perry’s Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing will be released on November 1
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