Friends star Matthew Perry has pledged to remove “mean” comments about fellow actor Keanu Reeves from his memoir.
Perry, who has previously apologised for parts of his book, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, that reference Reeves said on Saturday (US time) he would take the John Wicks’ actors name from future editions because “I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do”.
Saturday’s speech at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is not the first time Perry has spoken of his regrets about the inclusion. In October 2022, days before his book hit shelves, he released a statement saying, “I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologise. I should have used my own name instead.”
The controversial references are in a part of the book where Perry details his own struggles with addiction and alcoholism, as well as the deaths of actor River Phoenix and comedian Chris Farley.
“It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry wrote in part.
Phoenix died of a drug overdose in 1993, and Farley also of an overdose four years later.
Perry told the LA Times event why he’d used Reeves’ name.
“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do … I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologised publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it,” he said.
He said he hadn’t apologised to Reeves in person, but would be happy to do so.
“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologise. It was just stupid,” he said.
Later in Saturday’s conversation, Perry said he did his “best to not go after anybody in the book. That wasn’t the point”.
“I’ve been in therapy since I was 18 years old,” he said.
“I wanted to make sure that this wasn’t the kind of book where I blame people for the things they did wrong. You have to give them credit for the things they did right.”
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing covers Perry’s struggles with fame, as well as his alcohol and drug addictions, which led to frequent hospital visits and trips to rehab. His story is told with a mix of insider moments and painful revelations about the decades spent battling his addiction.
Reeves is not the only celebrity insulted in the book. But the references to him have received the most backlash.
Reeves has not publicly responded to the controversy.
