FRIENDS UNTIL THE END

The castmates are leaning on each other as they continue to grieve the loss of Matthew Perry and gear up to mark the 20th anniversary of the show's final episode

- JAIME HARKIN

In April 2021, all six Friends cast members arrived at the Warner Bros. Studio lot in L.A. to film the long-awaited reunion special, which would debut to great fanfare the following month. Over the course of two days, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry reminisced about their time on the hit sitcom, both in front of and behind the camera.

Though it had been nearly two decades since they’d all worked together, it was as if no time had passed at all. Their chemistry crackled, with Aniston, Cox and Kudrow trading fashion and beauty tips while LeBlanc, Schwimmer and Perry cracked jokes. Even after hours of seemingly endless interviews, echoes of raucous laughter could be heard throughout the soundstage, the very one where the original series had filmed from its second season.

They were the rare cast from a smash hit sitcom who meant it when they said they were just as close off-screen as they were on. Last October, their tight-knit crew was shattered when Perry was found dead at his Pacific Palisades home at the age of 54. The beloved actor was found unconscious in his hot tub, and an autopsy later revealed he died due to the acute effects of ketamine. Drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects — a medication used to treat opioid use disorder — were also listed as contributing factors. Perry had famously battled drug and alcohol addiction for years, and in his 2022 memoir, he revealed he was taking 55 Vicodin pills a day during the show’s heyday.