He’ll be there for you.
A new documentary covers the life and death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
Called “Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy,” it’s directed and executive produced by Robert Palumbo and premieres on Peacock Tuesday, Feb. 25.
“I don’t think it’s too soon for a [documentary]. I think the impact of his death is fresh,” Palumbo told The Post.
Viewers will notice that Perry’s “Friends” co-stars David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc aren’t included onscreen to give their perspectives, but “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,” he said.
He added, “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.”
Perry died at age 54 at his Pacific Palisades, Calif., home on Oct. 28, 2023. According to his autopsy report, his death was due to “acute effects of ketamine,” and the manner was accidental drowning.
The “Friends” actor had been candid about his struggles with addiction and substance abuse, which the documentary covers. The documentary, however, does include a sit down with Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler’s mother on “Friends.”
“He was someone who wanted to be remembered, not so much for his time on ‘Friends,’ but for how he has been able to help other people with addiction issues. I think that that’s still the case to this day, even after his death,” said Palumbo.
“I think he will have a legacy of helping other people. And Morgan [Fairchild] thought that was really the most important thing to communicate.”
The documentary also covers the five arrests that were made in Perry’s death probe. Some of them are still awaiting trial, such as Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, who has been dubbed the “Ketamine Queen.” Both of them pleaded not guilty to the crime and U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett has set the pair’s joint trial for March 4, 2025.
Additional text onscreen explains, “This program examines a legal case that has yet to be tried for all defendants. Statements about actions or defendants are alleged until determined by a court of law.”
“There were a lot of details about this case that were very surprising to me in many ways because, obviously, it’s about the underbelly of Hollywood,” said Palumbo.
“This is something that I think a lot of people have seen before – Hollywood celebrities who have died tragically. But in this case, there were a lot of complications…. One of them being the fact that his personal assistant had worked for him for many years was the person who actually helped him get some of the Ketamine over those final weeks, and actually injected him with the fatal injection,” he alleged.
Perry’s former personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, pleaded guilty on August 7, 2024, to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
Palumbo added that the doctors who allegedly facilitated the prescriptions “that eventually made their way to Perry – they should have known better. Not just that they were treating any patient, but they were treating someone who had addiction issues, because he was so well known and his addiction issues were so well known….what they did was pretty consciously wrong.”
“That shady black market in Hollywood was something that was really interesting and disturbing to examine.”