Matthew Perry was supposed to be in Don’t Look Up, but his heart stopped for 5 minutes - The A.V. Club

In Friends prima Matthew Perry’s caller memoir, ‌Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he’s revealing the depths to which substance maltreatment and addiction endangered his beingness and damaged his career. Those problems continued passim 2020 erstwhile helium was acceptable to look successful the “biggest movie I’d gotten ever,” Adam McKay’s star-studded drama Don’t Look Up. Unfortunately, Perry ne'er got the accidental to sprout his scenes due to the fact that his bosom had stopped for 5 minutes.

The histrion was to play a Republican writer for 3 scenes successful McKay’s comedy, which would person Perry other Meryl Streep, Perry flew to Boston to film. The accumulation was filmed determination from November 2020 to February 2021.

Perry had agelong dealt with substance abuse, having started drinking astatine property 14. But an wounded connected the acceptable of Fools Rush In, a romanticist drama helium starred successful with Salma Hayek, led him to opioid addiction. Over the years, Perry says that helium spent upwards of $9 cardinal connected rehab and sobriety efforts.

Around the clip helium started moving connected Don’t Look Up, helium was connected 1,800 milligrams of hydrocodone, a symptom medicine prescribed to him by a rehab installation successful Switzerland. While there, helium told doctors that helium suffered from terrible tummy pains. “In fact, I was OK,” Perry writes. “It inactive felt similar I was perpetually doing a sit-up — truthful it was precise uncomfortable — but it wasn’t pain.” He received the hydrocodone, but doctors wanted to bash country to “put immoderate benignant of weird aesculapian instrumentality successful my back.”

The nighttime earlier his surgery, helium stayed up each nighttime downing hydrocodone. So erstwhile Perry was nether surgery, doctors administered propofol, an anesthesia that ended up stopping Perry’s bosom for 5 minutes. Perry writes:

I was fixed the changeable astatine 11:00 a.m. 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.

The 1 country Perry filmed for Don’t Look Up ended up connected the cutting country floor.

With the memoir’s approaching release, Perry’s been sharing much stories similar these, hoping it volition animate others to question help. Last week, helium revealed that astatine 1 point, his colon burst, and helium had a 2% accidental of living.

“The doctors told my household that I had a 2% accidental to live,” helium said. After his colon burst from opioid abuse, helium spent 2 weeks successful a coma and 5 months successful the hospital. “I was enactment connected a happening called an ECMO machine, which does each the breathing for your bosom and your lungs. And that’s called a Hail Mary. No 1 survives that.”

Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing volition beryllium disposable successful bookstores connected November 1.

[via Rolling Stone]