TV & Movies
Tom Selleck Pays Tribute To Friends Co-Star Matthew Perry
The late actor helped him deliver a joke on set.
Tom Selleck is looking back fondly on his Friends days with the late Matthew Perry.
Selleck, who played Monica Geller’s recurring love interest Richard Burke on the sitcom, revealed to USA Today that Perry helped him deliver lines while filming a Season 2 episode.
Titled “The One Where Old Yeller Dies,” the episode originally aired in 1996, and saw Selleck’s older character attempt to recapture his youth with the help of Chandler (Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc).
“We had this role reversal thing going, where [Richard] tried to be like them, and them like me,” Selleck recalled, adding that he had difficulty pulling off the delivery of one of Chandler’s classic lines (“Could that shot be any prettier?” ).
“Matthew had this speech pattern that I hadn’t been aware of,” Selleck continued. “Matt told me: ‘It’s a joke, Tom. It’s the way he says it.’ But during that whole show, I kept going up to him asking, ‘Can you say it again?’ and he’d do the line. That was his signature.”
“He Was Raw Talent”
Selleck also recalled how his friendship with Perry’s father helped him bond with the late Friends star.
“Every day I’d see Matthew, and I’d ask him, ‘How’s your father?’ And he’d always smile and we’d catch up,” Selleck told USA Today, adding that Perry “walked onto the set, and brought the house down” while shooting Friends.
“He was raw talent. Matthew’s gone, so it’s easy to say this, but it’s true,” he continued. “I think he was the most talented of a very talented group of people.”
Perry died at the age of 54 on Oct. 28, 2023. Several Friends cast members and guest stars reacted to his passing shortly after it was reported, including Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and LeBlanc.
In a joint statement released at the time via People, the cast said they were “utterly devastated” and would “take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss.”
