As fans mourn Matthew Perry this weekend, many are looking back on their favorite performances from the actor – or even bloopers. Perry played Chandler Bing on Friends for a full decade, and in that time he generated a lot of fan-favorite outtakes. One of them has been making the rounds on social media as a beloved example of his charm and charisma.
Perry passed away at home on Saturday, according to a report by TMZ, but it’s still not entirely clear how. The actor was just 54 years old, and just two decades ago he was one of the stars of the most popular sitcom on TV. Friends has stood the test of time as well, finding a new life among binge-watchers in the streaming era and selling huge batches of DVDs. There, you can find bloopers like this one from Season 5, Episode 16, “The One With the Cop.” It’s an outtake from an iconic scene where Chandler and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) are trying to help Ross (David Schwimmer) carry a couch up into his apartment.
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The scene is memorable for the way that Ross repeatedly yells “Pivot!” at his friends with exaggerated pronunciation and urgency until finally Chandler yells back, “Shut up!” in the same inflection. Within the episode itself, the moment ends there, but the outtake shows Perry, Schwimmer and Aniston breaking character to laugh uncontrollably at each others’ antics. It really emphasizes how much fun they had making the show and how collaborative their performances were.
Perry wrote about the experience of making Friends in his own words nearly a year ago in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. He dispelled some rumors and confirmed others when it came to his struggles with addiction and alcoholism. While Perry said that he never went to work high, his altered states spilled over into his work to the point where there were entire seasons of the show he couldn’t remember filming. He shared stories like those not for their shock value, but in the hopes of helping others get the help they needed just as he did.
According to a report by TMZ, Perry was found unresponsive in his jacuzzi on Saturday and was pronounced dead on the scene. Police said there were no drugs or alcohol on the scene and no signs of foul play. So far, Perry’s cause of death has not been determined. Fans are sharing their favorite memories of Perry on social media in the meantime.