Matthew Perry says it was scary when Aniston called him out for alcohol abuse

MUMBAI: Actor Matthew Perry has got candid about how he felt when his 'Friends' co-star Jennifer Aniston called him out for his alcohol abuse.

In a new interview, he admitted that he was "scared" when his Friends co-star confronted him about his drinking.

The 53-year-old actor starred as Chandler Bing on the sitcom alongside Jennifer, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, and Courteney Cox from 1994 until 2004 but struggled with addiction at the height of his fame and was shocked when Jennifer confronted him about his "secret" problems, reports aceshowbiz.com.

He said: "Secrets kill you. Secrets kill people like me. At the time I should have been the toast of the town. I was in a dark room meeting nothing but drug dealers and completely alone. Jenny said 'We know you're drinking.' Imagine how scary a moment that was."

However, the '17 Again' actor went on to add that Aniston, who starred as Rachel Green on the classic sitcom, was the co-star who "reached out to him the most" and he is so "grateful" to have had her support.

Speaking in an upcoming clip for "Matthew Perry: The Diane Sawyer Interview", he added: "She was the one that reached out the most. I'm really grateful to her for that."

Perry, who achieved sobriety some years ago, has now opened up about his addiction struggles in new memoir 'Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing' and claimed that readers will be "surprised" at just how "bad" his struggles have been and how close he came to death.

He said, "I think they'll be surprised at how bad it got at certain times and how close to dying I came. I say in the book that if I did die, it would shock people, but it wouldn't surprise anybody. And that's a very scary thing to be living with."

"So my hope is that people will relate to it, and know that this disease attacks everybody. It doesn't matter if you're successful or not successful, the disease doesn't care."

SOURCE: IANS