Tom Selleck Shares Interesting Memory of Working With Matthew Perry on ‘Friends’

Tom Selleck is remembering the late Matthew Perry. Long before he was Frank Reagan on and after his turn as the original Thomas Magnum, Selleck recurred on Friends as Dr. Richard Burke, a family friend of the Gellers and the love interest of Courtney Cox’s Monica. In a Season 2 episode, Richard acted like Perry’s Chandler and Matt LeBlanc’s Joey, and Selleck had trouble delivering a line in a tone fit for Chandler.

“We had this role reversal thing going, where (Richard) tried to be like them, and them like me,” Selleck told USA Today. “Matthew had this speech pattern that I hadn’t been aware of. Matt told me: ‘It’s a joke, Tom. It’s the way he says it.’ But during the whole show, I kept going up to him asking, ‘Can you say it again?’ and he’d do the line. That was his signature.”

No one can deliver a line like Matthew Perry, especially in his classic, sarcastic tone. The line in question, “Could that shot be any prettier?” was said while Richard, Chandler, and Joey were playing foosball. Considering the line was said in a way that seemed to have come natural for Selleck, Perry was a pretty good teacher. However, it is hard to get the exact delivery like Perry, but Selleck seemed to have been determined to get it as close as he could. On top of the line delivery, Selleck also remembered the bond he had with someone close to Perry.

“Everybody couldn’t have been nicer to me,” Selleck recalled. “But every day I’d see Matthew, and I’d ask him, ‘How’s your father?’ And he’s always smile and we’d catch up. I got to know his father when I was a young struggling actor. Almost any commercial or pilot I went out on, there as John. We became real good friends.”

Tom Selleck had joined the special in 2021, and it was as if no time had passed. While some time has passed, it seems like the memories he made on set will never go away. Thanks to streaming, the memories from those episodes will never go away either. Selleck is one of many who have been paying tribute to Matthew Perry in recent months since his death, and the tributes will likely continue to pour in. It’s clear that he made an impact on many people and will continue to do so.