Why the Friends cast declined to join Netflix’s Matthew Perry docuseries

When Matthew Perry was laid to rest, his five Friends costars arrived together, joined hands and walked up to his casket as one. That private moment, recounted by Perry’s sister, is as close as viewers get to the cast in Netflix’s new docuseries about the late actor, because none of them agreed to take part.

The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part series, debuted on Netflix on Tuesday, October 27, days before the third anniversary of Perry’s death. It traces his ascent on Friends, the addiction he battled away from the cameras, and the investigation that followed his death at 54 from the acute effects of ketamine.

Director Mary Robertson confirmed that Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer were all approached for the project.

“We did reach out to them, and they declined to participate,” she told Gold Derby. “We know the cast of Friends were very close with Matthew in real life, and they are grieving.”

Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Robertson said it became clear early in production that many in Perry’s circle were still trying to “make sense of a world that he wasn’t in.”

“I think that many who were close to Matthew were obviously grieving him but also processing and trying to understand and make sense of how they lost him and why they lost him,” she said

Among those who did go on camera is Perry’s sister, Mia Perry Bowick, who addresses his death publicly for the first time in the series. Robertson credited participants for committing early and embracing the project’s tone.

“We’re really thrilled that [those who participated] supported this project at a really early stage and understood that it could be tender and unflinching; that it could be a love letter to Matthew,” she said. “I really appreciate their trust. I really appreciate their candor. They have taught me so much about loyalty as friends.”

It is through Mia that the documentary captures the depth of the cast’s bond with Perry. She describes a small, intimate service.

“The funeral was very small, close friends and family only. I remember sitting in the front row with our family and seeing his mom and all the other siblings,” she says in the series. “And then the rest of the Friends cast all walked in together.”

“I hadn’t seen them in easily 20 years. And Jen Aniston was the first one of them to come up to me and give me a huge hug, but they all did,” she continues. “And then all five of them walked up to the casket holding hands, and just stood around him, crying.”

What the cast has said

Though they stayed out of the documentary, Perry’s costars have spoken about him before. Aniston, Cox, LeBlanc, Schwimmer and Kudrow released a group statement about Perry’s death on Oct. 30, 2023, two days after he died. “We were more than just cast mates. We are a family,” the statement read, adding that they needed time to grieve and process what they called an unfathomable loss.

Two weeks later, the five began sharing individual tributes. LeBlanc became the first of his close castmates to share a personal tribute, signing off with a Joey-style joke: “And I guess you’re keeping the 20 bucks you owe me.”

Cox, Perry’s on-screen wife, posted a favorite scene and recalled that before they started rolling, he whispered a funny line for her to say. “He was funny and he was kind,” she wrote.

Aniston, referring to her former cast as her “chosen family,” wrote: “We were always the 6 of us.”

Schwimmer thanked Perry for ten incredible years of laughter and creativity, imagining him in the afterlife asking, “Could there BE any more clouds?”

Kudrow, calling Friends “the best 10 years a person gets to have,” closed her post: “Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”