“Friends” co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane recalled their last conversations with series star Matthew Perry, who died on Oct. 28 at the age of 54, during an appearance on “Today” Wednesday morning.
Kauffman spoke to Perry just two weeks ago, saying: “It was great. He was happy and chipper. He didn’t seem weighed down by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why this seems so unfair.”
Perry was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home, as the L.A. Times reported. No foul play was suspected. When she heard the news, Kauffman was in “utter shock.”
“My first impulse was to text him, honestly,” she said, adding: “It’s hard to grasp: one minute he’s here and he’s happy, and then poof. And doing good in the world, really doing good in the world.”
“Today” host Hoda Kotb pointed out that though Perry’s death was shocking, it may not have been surprising to some given his history with drugs and alcohol abuse.
“I would say that’s probably true given the journey he’d been on, and we were all aware of it. There was a part that was kind of bracing for something like this,” Crane said. “It is still hard to believe, because he was such an alive person that it’s hard to believe he’s not here.”
However, Kauffman said that Perry was sober at the time of his death. “He seemed better than I had seen in a while. I was so thrilled to see that,” Kauffman said. “He was emotionally in a good place. He looked good. He quit smoking … He was sober.”
In one of his last interviews, Perry discussed how he wanted to be remembered not just for “Friends,” but for helping others struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. “When I die, I don’t want ‘Friends’ to be the first thing that’s mentioned,” Perry said. “I want that to be the first thing that’s mentioned. And I’m gonna live the rest of my life proving that.”
Crane said that definitely rings true. “As important as the show was and continues to be, I think that absolutely became his purpose, his reason for being,” he said.
