The director of a tragic new Matthew Perry documentary has spoken about why none of the core cast of Friends agreed to appear in it.
The documentary is called Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy and released yesterday on Peacock in the US.
Perry died in 2023 at 54 from 'acute effects of ketamine', having reportedly used the drug as a treatment for depression and anxiety, following years of battling his drug addiction.
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The other core members of the Friends cast have all spoken about his death over the year and a half since, but were unwilling to appear in the new documentary.
Director Robert Palumbo defended the documentary, stating it was not too soon, adding to The New York Post: “I think the impact of his death is fresh.”
Despite this, when addressing why David Schwimmer, Courtney Cox, Matt Le Blanc, Lisa Kudrow and Jennifer Aniston didn't appear, Palumbo was frank.
He said: “Understandably, they were reluctant to go on a documentary about Matthew at this point.
“Maybe many years down the line … We understand their decision not to appear.”
Palumbo went on to say: “Many of us remember getting that news that he had died, and then eventually getting the details [that gave] sort of waves of anger.
“I feel like people still have him in their hearts and minds.
“As the facts began to come out about what happened to him, how he died and what possibly could have been a ring of people that sort of facilitated his death, I was really upset.”
The documentary goes into the accusations that his death was contributed to by people who were supplying him with ketamine.
Five people were charged following his death, with attorney Martin Estrada saying in a press conference there had been a ‘broad underground criminal network responsible for distributing large quantities of ketamine to Mr Perry and others'.
The documentary had several shocking revelations regarding Perry’s death.
Estrada, who stepped down from Perry’s case in January, spoke in the documentary and said that he had been administered 27 doses of Ketamine three days prior to his death.
Estrada said this was done by ‘people who should have known much better’.
Perry was administered the drug reportedly for ‘anxiety and depression’, with those close to the actor admitting that they hadn’t realised he had relapsed.
He was admitted several injections of Ketamine in the hours leading up to his death, with those reportedly being administered by Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.
'Ketamine Queen' Jasveen Sangha, however, was charged with supplying the ketamine that led to his death.
Iwamasa, as well as two others, have pled guilty, while Sangha and a Dr Salvador Plasencia have both pled not guilty.
Topics: Celebrity, Documentaries, Friends, Matthew Perry, TV and Film, Drugs, Mental Health
Michael Slavin