Matthew Perry Reveals How He Changed Chandler's Characteristics On 'Friends'

Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the popular comedy show "Friends," released his new memoir called "Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing" last week.

The memoir was released more than 18 years after the show ended, and included several revelations about Chandler, a character known for his funny one-liners and sarcasm.

Perry, now 53, mapped the development of his character on the show that ran for 10 seasons. The actor explained a popular characteristic of Chandler was to emphasize the word "be" in a sentence. And, could he be any more accurate?

Perry said in his memoir he "had to beg the producers" to stop including this bit in the script, even though he came up with it himself.

"That particular cadence — could it be more annoying? — had been so played out that if I had to put the emphasis in the wrong place one more time, I thought I'd explode," an excerpt from his memoir read, according to the New York Post.

Perry also noted he requested the producers of "Friends" to not make sweater vests a signature outfit for Chandler. Both the bits slowly faded out around the fifth season of the show.

In the memoir, Perry opened up about his addiction to prescribed drugs and alcohol and said viewers can "track the trajectory" through the show.

"When I am carrying weight, it is alcohol; when I am skinny, it is pills. When I have a goatee, it is lots of pills," Perry wrote, according to Variety.

The Emmy-nominated actor said he did not expect the "Friends" cast to read his newly released memoir, with Lisa Kudrow (Pheobe Buffay) being the exception. Kudrow reportedly wrote the foreword for the memoir.

"Why would they read it? Because, you know, who cares? Addicts are going to care about this, and fans of Friends are going to care about this. But the cast is not going to really care about this," Perry told GQ days before his memoir was released.

The entire cast of "Friends" appeared in a reunion episode in May 2021. The show's co-creators, Kevin Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane also made an appearance.