Zac Efron would be ‘honoured’ to play Matthew Perry in biopic

Matthew Perry wanted Efron for the role ‘because he did such a good job [on 17 Again]’. Photograph: Matt Sayles/AP

Zac Efron said he would be “honoured” to play Matthew Perry in a film that the Friends actor had been planning before his death on 29 October.

In an interview with Sirius XM in 2022, Perry said that he had asked Efron to play the lead role in a film that Perry had written and planned to direct, but that Efron had “said no”. The project was mentioned again in the wake of Perry’s death by the actor’s friend Athenna Crosby, who told People magazine that Perry’s movie was a biopic and that he “wanted Zac Efron, who’s played him already to play him again because he said he did such a good job”.

‘I learned comedic timing from that guy’ … Zac Efron. Photograph: Stewart Cook/Getty Images for A24

While promoting his new wrestling movie The Iron Claw, Efron told People: “I’m honoured to hear he was thinking of me to play him ... I’d be honoured to do it.”

Perry and Efron previously appeared together in 2009 fantasy comedy 17 Again, in which Efron played Perry’s younger self.

Efron said: “[Perry] was a mentor to me, and we made a really cool film together. I looked up to him, I learned comedic timing from that guy. I mean, when we were filming 17 Again, it was so surreal for me to look across and have him be there, because I’ve learned so much from him, from his whole life.”

Perry’s funeral took place in Los Angeles on Saturday, attended by family and friends including fellow cast members of Friends. Perry’s cause of death is yet to be revealed after an autopsy and toxicology tests carried out by the Los Angeles county medical examiner’s office.