Sometimes even the queens of comedy can get emotional. During Jennifer Aniston and Quinta Brunson’s recent conversation for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Aniston got choked up when asked about rewatching Friends, presumably because she was remembering her late costar and friend Matthew Perry.
During the interview, an offscreen voice suggests that Brunson ask Aniston “what it’s like to watch Friends now.” Before Brunson can get the question out, Aniston begins to well up, fanning her face and choking back tears. “Oh God, don’t make me cry,” Aniston says. Brunson immediately comforts Aniston: “I won’t. We won’t make each other cry,” she says.
“I’m sorry, I just started thinking about—” says an emotional Aniston as she dabs her eyes. Brunson reassures Aniston that they don’t have to talk about Friends and, presumably, Perry, but Aniston insists that they continue. “No, I’m okay. It’s happy tears,” she says, wiping her eyes, and then continuing with the interview.
While his name isn’t mentioned in that moment, it does not seem like a stretch to assume that Aniston got overcome thinking about Perry. On October 28, 2023, Perry was pronounced dead after being found unresponsive in a hot tub at his home in the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. An autopsy found that Perry died of “acute effects of ketamine,” as well as drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid-use disorder. While his death was initially ruled an accident, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration later launched a joint criminal investigation into the tragic circumstances surrounding Perry’s death.
After Perry’s death, Aniston and her Friends costars Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc paid tribute to him. “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew,” they said in a joint statement to People. “We were more than just castmates. We are a family.”
Aniston later posted her own individual tribute to Perry on Instagram. “Matty, I love you so much and I know you are now completely at peace and out of any pain,” she wrote. “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.”
