Matthew Perry Documentary Reveals He Spent $7 Million Trying to Get Sober

Matthew Perry once begged for fame, believing it would fill the void inside him, but it never did. Now, a newly released trailer offers fans an emotional glimpse at the laughter and heartbreak that defined the beloved actor's life.

The late Matthew Perry is the focus of a new Netflix documentary that reflects on his career, life, and struggles through the eyes of those closest to him. The docu-series is slated to arrive just one day before the three-year anniversary of his passing.

Netflix unveiled the trailer for "The One About Matthew Perry" on Tuesday, September 29.

The clip features snippets of heartfelt testimonies from Perry's close friends and family, as well as words from the actor himself, offering fans an intimate look at the man behind Chandler Bing.

"Making people laugh — it's a world that I want to be involved in," Perry says at the start of the clip in an old interview. "I said, 'God, you can do anything you want to me, just please make me famous.'"

Perry goes on to recall that when he received the phone call confirming he'd landed "Friends," which ran from 1994 to 2004, he "instantly knew [his] whole life was going to change. But God did not forget the other part."

Throughout his life, Perry spoke candidly about his battle with addiction, revealing that he'd been to rehab 15 times. "I was extremely happy when I got famous, then it's like, 'Uh-oh, this didn't fix what's inside me. This didn't do what I thought it was going to do,'" Perry admits in the clip.

"I had people telling me to stop, saying, 'You're going to kill yourself if you keep going like this,' and I just didn't know how," he continues.

The documentary will also include the first interview with Perry's sister, Mia Perry Bowick, since the actor's death. In the trailer, Bowick shares that her brother "would talk about that feeling of emptiness or loneliness that he couldn't quite fill."

"He spent $7 million trying to get sober," she reveals. "That's how seriously he took his disease." Elsewhere in the clip, Bowick reflects that "all great stories have comedy and tragedy in them, and that certainly was Matthew's story."

In addition to her interview, the documentary showcases never-before-seen photos and videos from the Perry family archive, along with interviews with several of Perry's friends, including actor David Pressman.

"I was Matthew's buddy for 40 years," Pressman says in the trailer, adding with a laugh that his friend "would definitely want everyone to talk about how great he was." Jeff Strauss, who helped write "Friends," shares that Perry "meant so much in so many ways."

Meanwhile, Perry's longtime friend West Huddleston highlights the actor's work advocating for drug courts, explaining that he saw it as "an area where he could really make a huge difference."

Despite the many ups and downs he faced, Bowick says her brother always found joy in one thing:

"When he made people laugh, it made him feel good."

Perry died at age 54 on October 28, 2023, from the acute effects of ketamine. His death was ruled an accident, with drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine listed as contributing factors.

"The One About Matthew Perry," a three-part docu-series, premieres on Netflix on October 27.