Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow pay tribute to Matthew Perry: 'This one has cut deep'
"We were always the 6 of us," says Aniston. "This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be."
Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow have joined their fellow Friends mates in releasing wrenching personal tributes to Matthew Perry.
One day after Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc took to Instagram with poignant — and funny — posts, Aniston revealed the "insane wave of emotions that I've never experienced before" in the wake of Perry's death on Oct. 28.
"Oh boy this one has cut deep..." her post began. "We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. 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.
"He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.
"For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh ... 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."
Aniston, who accompanied the post with images and video of the two from the Friends set as well as a personal text message, said that "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. (See the second slide…)"
She concluded: "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…"
Schwimmer, meanwhile, thanked Perry for a decade of "laughter and creativity."
"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," he wrote. "And you had heart. Which you were generous with, and shared with us, so we could create a family out of six strangers."
Schwimmer shared a photo of one of his "favorite moments" with Perry, which is when their characters Ross and Chandler dressed up in Miami Vice-style outfits for the Friends Thanksgiving special "The One With Thanksgiving Flashbacks."
"Now it makes me smile and grieve at the same time," Schwimmer said of the picture. "I imagine you up there, somewhere, in the same white suit, hands in your pockets, looking around — 'Could there BE any more clouds?'"
As for Kudrow, the actress began by remembering how she and Perry "initially bonded" at NBC upfronts when they played poker.
"Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY," she wrote. "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."
See Kudrow, Schwimmer and Aniston's complete posts below:
On Tuesday, Cox and LeBlanc became the first individual cast members to release public statements. Cox said, "I am so grateful for every moment I had with you," while LeBlanc said, "The times we had together are honestly among the favorite times of my life."
As Aniston and Schwimmer noted in their respective posts, the six core cast members of Friends — including Perry, Kudrow, LeBlanc and Cox — thought of themselves as "a found family," as close off-screen as on during the seminal sitcom's 10 seasons and beyond.
In his memoir, Perry wrote that they met on the set of Monica's apartment with the instruction to just talk to each other — and it was a natural flow. "We talked and joked, about romance, our careers, our loves, our losses," he wrote. LeBlanc told Oprah Winfrey in 1995, "I think we all came together with an open mind to get along and bond as quick as possible — and I think that's what happened. We all hit it off right away."
In a joint statement released two days after Perry was found dead in his hot tub, the five surviving stars reiterated their familial bond in expressing their shared grief.
"We were more than just cast mates. We are a family," they wrote. "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."
It seems the time is finally right for them to begin to speak out about their cherished brother.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on Nov. 15, 2023 at 11:45 a.m. ET and has been updated to include the statements from Schwimmer and Kudrow.
