Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing

As the setting of his life story changes from Canada to Los Angeles, Perry introduces a new theme: The Fantasy and the Reality of Fame. The author looks back with irony on his belief that celebrity would solve all his problems. Recounting his prayer, “God, you can do whatever you want to me. Just please make me famous,” he foreshadows his later challenges (81).

Actors Craig Bierko, Hank Azaria, and David Pressman are introduced in these chapters. Perry emphasizes that each member of the friendship group is obsessed with fame and similarly talented. Therefore, the divergence of their fates illustrates The Fantasy and the Reality of Fame, emphasizing fame’s fickle nature. Perry becomes the most famous, and Azaria the wealthiest (due to his voiceovers for The Simpsons), while David Pressman became “a journeyman actor” (71). Bierko’s decision to turn down the role of Chandler in Friends marks a crucial turning point in Perry’s life. The author speculates if he had not been offered the part by default and remained a jobbing actor, he may have progressed to heroin addiction and died. Perry suggests that while “earning $1 million a week” did not stop him from drinking, it prevented him from having “the seventeenth drink” (81).

As Perry traces his escalating alcohol addiction, he explores The Nature of Addiction. The author indicates how his addiction is partly learned from his father’s example. As a teenager, he absorbs his father’s declaration that his first vodka tonic of the evening is “the best thing that’s happened […] all day” (43). However, at the same time, he acknowledges a crucial difference between them. His father is “a functional drinker” whose liking for alcohol does not affect his professional commitments (44). Furthermore, John Bennett Perry later quits drinking overnight. By contrast, the author is unable to give up alcohol after spending several million dollars, attending thousands of AA meetings, and going to rehabilitation centers 15 times.

The author’s account of his relationship with Tricia Fisher marks the beginning of a behavior pattern repeated throughout the memoir. After accepting support from her to overcome his imagined impotence, he promptly rejects her. In hindsight, the author acknowledges his ingratitude and debt to Fisher’s patience. Another frank sexual revelation in this section involves Valerie Bertinelli. Retrospectively, Perry realizes that his pursuit of unavailable women stemmed from his craving for his mother’s attention as a boy: “I was trying to re-create my childhood and win” (70).

Perry’s revelation of his sexual encounters with famous women in his memoir has caused controversy. However, Chapter 2 features a comment that has provoked the most censure among critics. On lamenting the premature deaths of fellow actors from drug overdoses, the author asks, “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” (50-51). After being challenged for this attack on Reeves, the author vowed to remove the comment from future editions of the memoir.

The Interludes in this section provide contrasting anecdotes from Perry’s life. The first is lighthearted, recounting incidents where the author mistook ordinary people for famous film directors. The author’s decision to share these embarrassing experiences demonstrates his honesty and insight into his former behavior. In both cases, Perry pursued conversations with people he mistakenly thought could boost his career, failing to notice who these men actually were because he was unable to see past who he hoped they might be and what he hoped they might do for him. These anecdotes vividly illustrate Perry’s all-consuming pursuit of fame. The author’s self-deprecating humor is evident in the title of this Interlude—“Matman.” A play on Batman (the superhero role he cast himself in as a child), the title suggests that Perry’s only superpower is his tendency to misidentify other people.

The second Interlude, “Dead,” presents another against-the-odds survival story. Revealing that Propofol stopped his heart for five minutes, Perry invites readers to pause and contemplate how long this is. As well as emphasizing the enormity of surviving death, the author raises a recurring point—the irresponsibility of many rehabilitation centers. Perry criticizes the Swiss treatment center, which offers personal chefs and butlers while making drugs too readily available to patients with addictions. Placing his 1,800-milligram prescription of hydrocodone into perspective for readers, he reveals that 0.5 milligrams would be the average dose administered for a broken thumb. He also clarifies that Propofol is “the drug that killed Michael Jackson” (83). Nevertheless, Perry acknowledges the role of his own actions in his near-death experience, as he had been faking pain to obtain opioids. The author conveys the chaos addiction wreaks in his life, as his broken ribs leave him unable to complete a film role, and he has no memory of proposing to his girlfriend.