Netflix’s documentary about Matthew Perry featured interviews with his loved ones and former costars — but there were some noticeable absences, including his father, John Bennett Perry.
“Our dad has been ill for a long time,” Perry’s half-sister Mia Perry Bowick said in The One About Matthew Perry, which premiered Tuesday, October 27.
Perry Bowick noted that her and Perry’s dad would have loved “to be able to participate in helping to share the story of his son.”
“But unfortunately, he’s just not well enough to do that,” she continued. “It really fell to me to be able to talk about the Perry side of the family.”
The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part special that explores Perry’s life. In addition to examining his rise to fame with the role of Chandler Bing on Friends, the doc addressed the late actor’s private struggles with addiction, mental health and attempts to get sober before his shocking death at age 54 in October 2023.
Perry Bowick is the only member of Perry’s family who participated in the documentary. She was joined by his lifelong friends, including Roger Castillo and David Pressman, but noticeable absences included his mother, Suzanne Marie Morrison, stepfather, Keith Morrison, and his other half-siblings.
“I haven’t heard [my dad] talk like himself in so long,” Perry Bowick said in the doc. “My dad would say, ‘[Matthew] was a fighter. He never gave up. He was so strong.’ He would just hit the positives.”
Perry Bowick continued: “My dad was extremely proud of how hard Matthew worked to get well. And he backed him up 100 percent in anything he wanted to do to get well. We were all so grateful for Matthew for doing that — for never giving up and for always trying.”
Perry was candid about his battle with substance abuse through the years. He developed an addiction to Vicodin after a Jet Ski accident led him to begin abusing alcohol. Perry was hospitalized with pancreatitis in 2000 and made multiple attempts to get sober — entering treatment on several occasions.
While Perry’s loved ones largely opted out of participating in the Netflix doc, Morrison, 79, previously reflected on the actor’s death.
“As other people have told me hundreds of times, it doesn’t go away. It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time, and there’s some new aspect of it that assaults your brain,” the Dateline correspondent told Hoda Kotb on the “Making Space” podcast in March 2024. “It’s not easy, especially for his mom.”
Morrison was asked whether he was surprised by the loss, to which he responded, “It was the news you never want to get, but you think someday you might. Yes and no, I guess is the answer to that.”
According to Morrison, Perry seemed to be “beating” his substance abuse struggles at the time of his death. “But you never beat it, and he knew that, too,” Morrison added.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
