Friends Director Says Matthew Perry Was Making 'Remarkable Recovery': 'We Were So Proud Of Him'

Friends director James expressed how happy the Friends team was to see Matthew's addiction recovery over the previous few years in a recent interview.

Matthew Perry died at 54. ( Image Source :@mattyperry4/instagram. )

New Delhi: Matthew Perry's fans are still grieving over his death. Among them is James Burrows, who directed 15 episodes of Friends, including the pilot episode titled "The One Where Monica Finds A Roommate." James expressed how happy the Friends team was to see Matthew's addiction recovery over the previous few years in a recent interview on the Today show.

“We were so proud of him these last couple of years that he was making this remarkable recovery," said James, adding, "He was part of a family, and he was the first one to not be part of that family anymore. I texted the girls (Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow) the day we found out and they were destroyed. It’s a brother dying.”

He saw Matthew's casting as a "perfect meld" with Chandler Bing. James continued by saying that Matthew was conscious of being filmed "even though he wasn't speaking" and that he was always in the present.

Friends producers Marta Kauffman and David Crane also disclosed in a previous interview that they spoke with the actor two weeks prior to his passing, saying that he appeared to be "in a good place." This interview was also broadcast on the Today show. “He didn’t seem weighed down by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why this seems so unfair,” said Marta.

She continued by saying that during the Friends: The Reunion filming, they were worried about Matthew's physical and emotional state. “Knowing he had been through everything he’d been through and every time he had surgery, they’re giving him opioids for pain, and the cycle starts over again. So yes, I was concerned about what point he was in the cycle at that moment,” she said.

The popular Friends actor Matthew Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home on Saturday. The cause of his death is still being investigated.