A documentary exploring the events that led to F.R.I.E.N.D.S. star Matthew Perry’s sudden death and the subsequent investigation is set to stream on Peacock from February 25, the streamer announced alongside a trailer on Wednesday.
Titled Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy, the documentary will be available to stream on JioHotstar for viewers in India.
The one-minute-51-second-long video delves into Perry’s rise to fame as Chandler Bing in the popular American sitcom and his lifelong battle with addiction. It also covers the investigation into his death by drowning on October 28, 2023. Perry was found dead in a hot tub at his home in Los Angeles. He was 54.
The trailer features a fan saying, “He was my favourite one because he just made me laugh all the time.” Morgan Fairchild, who played Chandler Bing's mother on the show, adds, "He really touched people's lives." The video also includes footage from the 1996 Screen Actors Guild Awards, where Perry’s co-stars Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow call him “the funniest person on the planet”.
"He was doing so well. Everyone thought he was clean and sober. That's when we knew there was way more to this story,” an insider says, adding that most people fail to recognise the true nature of fame and how Hollywood is full of enablers who prey on vulnerable people.
Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, whose office is handling the investigation into Perry's death, also appears in the trailer.
"He had died as a result of ketamine," Estrada says. "The defendants have all been charged. Three of them have pleaded guilty and will be cooperating. Two remain."
"The allegations show a trained doctor is injecting Mr. Perry in parking lots. We used to blame [the] victim. We don't do that anymore,” he continues.
The trailer ends with an insider saying, "This story has become so big that we're really forgetting this story is about one man and that he will be missed."
“On October 28, 2023, the news that actor Matthew Perry was found dead at home in Los Angeles shocked the world. In his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing, he had told his story of battling addiction, and when ketamine was found in his system, it was thought by many that he had died from an overdose. Nearly a year later, a bombshell announcement from prosecutors: five people, including Perry's live-in personal assistant, two medical doctors, and an alleged Hollywood drug dealer known as "the Ketamine Queen" were charged with conspiracy to illegally provide Perry with ketamine. The special explores the case as two of the defendants, who have pleaded not guilty, await trial,” reads the documentary’s official synopsis.
