All five remaining members of the Friends cast have honoured their friend and cast mate Matthew Perry following his death last month.
Matt LeBlanc, Courtney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston have all shared individual tributes to Perry, who died on October 28 at age 54, remembering him as a kind, deeply funny person whom they loved.
Jennifer Aniston.
"Oh boy this one has cut deep," Aniston began her post, alongside a behind-the-scenes image of her and Perry laughing.
She said saying goodbye to Perry had been an "insane wave of emotions" she had never experienced before.
"Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply," she continued.
"He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the six of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be."
She recalled how much Perry loved making people laugh.
"As he said himself, if he didn't hear the 'laugh' he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard.
"In the last couple weeks, I've been pouring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying then laughing again. I'll keep them forever and ever. I found one text that he sent me out of nowhere one day. It says it all.
"Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain. I talk to you every day… sometimes I can almost hear you saying 'could you BE any crazier?'
"Rest little brother. You always made my day."
Lisa Kudrow.
Kudrow shared a photo of her and Perry at network NBC's Upfronts soon after Friends was picked up, and reflected on how they became quick friends.
"You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that," she said.
"Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY. Thank you for your open heart in a six-way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of 'talking'. Thank you for showing up at work when you weren't well and then, being completely brilliant. Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have.
"Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you. Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew."
David Schwimmer.
Schwimmer shared an image of him and Perry as Ross and Chandler.
"Matty, thank you for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity," he began.
"I will never forget your impeccable comic timing and delivery. You could take a straight line of dialogue and bend it to your will, resulting in something so entirely original and unexpectedly funny it still astonishes.
"And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers."
He said the photo was from one of his favourite moments with Perry.
"Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time. I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around— 'Could there BE any more clouds?'"
Matt LeBlanc.
On Instagram, LeBlanc, shared photos of him and Perry as their characters Joey Tribbiani and Chandler Bing, alongside a message addressed to his real-life friend.
"Matthew. It is with a heavy heart I say goodbye. The times we had together are honestly among the favourite times of my life," he wrote. "It was an honour to share the stage with you and to call you my friend."
"I will always smile when I think of you and I'll never forget you. Never," he continued.
"Spread your wings and fly brother you're finally free. Much love."
In conclusion, he joked: "And I guess you're keeping the 20 bucks you owe me."
Courtney Cox.
Cox posted footage of her and Perry as Chandler and Monica Geller.
"I am so grateful for every moment I had with you Matty and I miss you every day," she wrote.
"When you work with someone as closely as I did with Matthew, there are thousands of moments I wish I could share. For now here's one of my favourites," she wrote, alongside a video of the show's live audience reacting to the moment we discovered Monica and Chandler in bed together.
"To give a little backstory, Chandler and Monica were supposed to have a one-night fling in London. But because of the audience's reaction, it became the beginning of their love story," Cox wrote.
"In this scene, before we started rolling, he whispered a funny line for me to say. He often did things like that. He was funny and he was kind."
The Friends cast's enduring bond.
During 2021's Friends: The Reunion, the cast spoke of the forever bond they felt towards one another.
"The best way that I can describe it is after the show was over, at a party or any kind of social gathering, if one of us bumped into each other, that was it. That was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night long and that was it," Perry said, bringing both Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox to tears.
"You apologised to the people you were with, but they had to understand you had met somebody special to you and you were going to talk to that person for the rest of the night. And that's the way it worked."
Days after his sudden death on October 28, the five of them released a joint statement.
"We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family," the joint statement said.
"There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.
"In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty's family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world."
All five attended Perry's funeral in Los Angeles the following week.
This article was originally published on November 15, 2023 and has been updated.
Feature image: NBC.
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