Matthew Perry Pulled Out of ‘Don’t Look Up’ After His Heart Stopped for 5 Minutes - Rolling Stone

Matthew Perry was acceptable to marque an quality other Meryl Streep successful Don’t Look Up but had to propulsion retired of the movie pursuing a aesculapian scare portion astatine a attraction halfway successful Switzerland amid his decades-long addiction battle. The actor’s bosom stopped for 5 minutes, and doctors broke 8 of his ribs trying to resuscitate him. 

Despite his occurrence arsenic a tv actor, securing the portion successful Adam McKay’s governmental satire would person been the “biggest movie I’d gotten ever,” Perry writes successful his upcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, retired November 1. 

His quality was acceptable to beryllium a Republican writer who had 3 scenes with Oscar-winning Streep. Flying retired to Boston, wherever the movie was chiefly filmed from Nov. 2020 to Feb. 2021, McKay loved 1 of Perry’s on-the-fly pitches truthful overmuch that it ended up being utilized successful a radical scene.

But Perry was successful the midst of crippling intoxicant and opioid addiction, which his publication traces backmost to his archetypal portion astatine property 14 and his archetypal Vicodin aft sustaining an wounded portion filming Fools Rush In. Perry estimates helium spent up to $9 cardinal connected rehab and sobriety efforts implicit the years. Even portion shooting a radical country with Jonah Hill for Don’t Look Up, helium writes that helium was connected 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone. 

Around this time, Perry says helium went to a luxury rehab successful Switzerland, wherever helium was enactment up successful a villa overlooking Lake Geneva and had his ain butler and chef. Unable to wholly springiness up his addiction, Perry says helium was insisting to his doctors that helium had terrible tummy symptom truthful they’d prescribe him drugs. “In fact, I was OK,” helium writes. “It inactive felt similar I was perpetually doing a sit-up — truthful it was precise uncomfortable — but it wasn’t pain.”

Doctors astatine the rehab halfway had been prescribing Perry hydrocodone, but to assistance with his symptom further, they decided to “put immoderate benignant of weird aesculapian instrumentality successful my back,” which would necessitate surgery. 

The nighttime earlier the operation, Perry writes that helium stayed up each nighttime taking hydrocodone. In the operating room, helium was administered propofol, which is regularly utilized for anesthesia. But the cause stopped Perry’s heart. 

“I was fixed the changeable astatine 11:00 a.m.,” helium writes. “I woke up eleven hours aboriginal successful a antithetic hospital. Apparently, the propofol had stopped my heart. For 5 minutes. It wasn’t a bosom onslaught — I didn’t flatline — but thing had been beating. I was told that immoderate beefy Swiss feline truly didn’t privation the feline from Friends dying connected his array and did CPR connected maine for the afloat 5 minutes, beating and pounding my chest. If I hadn’t been connected Friends, would helium person stopped astatine 3 minutes? Did Friends prevention my beingness again? 

“He whitethorn person saved my life, but helium besides broke 8 of my ribs,” helium adds. 

Perry writes helium was successful excessively overmuch symptom to proceed with Don’t Look Up and had to propulsion retired of the film. Calling the determination “heartbreaking,” Perry ne'er got to movie with Streep — and ultimately, the 1 country Perry did negociate to movie didn’t marque the movie’s last cut.