After Friends ended in 2004, all six stars went their separate ways.
Sadly, Matthew Perry's post-Friends resume is a little spottier than you might have predicted
- especially in comparison to some of his more successful co-stars.
Here's why Hollywood won’t cast Matthew Perry anymore.
During the first blush of fame for the stars of Friends, nearly all the actors went off
to make movies - terrible, terrible movies.
Matt Le Blanc, for example, starred in Ed, a movie about a baseball playing monkey; David
Schwimmer appeared in a bleak romantic comedy called The Pallbearer; and Matthew Perry starred
in the romantic comedy Fools Rush In with Salma Hayek.
That film made just $29 million at the box office - which was a pretty blah start for
Perry's film career.
“I am not blah, I am a hoot!”
He eventually found some success in The Whole Nine Yards, but that was mostly a Bruce Willis
vehicle in which Perry simply played second fiddle.
The rest of Perry's film career produced results that were less than stellar.
Besides Fools Rush In, Perry’s bombs included Almost Heroes, Three to Tango, and Serving
Sara.
Perry hasn't even starred in a movie since 17 Again in 2009, and it doesn't look like
he's going to be taking any Hollywood roles anytime soon.
Matthew Perry is an actor, and there’s nothing actors like more than the chance to stretch
their acting muscles - particularly after getting used to being pigeonholed by the world
into doing just one kind of thing.
For Perry, that meant branching out of crowd-pleasing comedy into the world of T.V. drama.
In 2006, his first big post-Friends gig was Aaron Sorkin's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
On this deadly serious, largely self-congratulatory show set behind the scenes of a Saturday Night
Live-style series, Perry played Matt Albie, one of the show's legendary writers.
Despite being Sorkin's highly-anticipated follow-up to The West Wing, the show was a
ratings disaster and lasted just one season.
Perry went on to play one of the most challenging roles of his career in 2017 - Ted Kennedy
in The Kennedys: Decline and Fall, the umpteenth TV miniseries about the Kennedy dynasty.
It aired on an obscure cable channel called Reelz, and unfortunately, didn't do much to
increase Perry's profile.
After the cancellation of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Perry returned to what had been
good to him: TV comedy.
Unfortunately, a Friends-shaped lightning bolt didn't strike twice.
Unlike his former co-stars' TV comedy projects - Courteney Cox's Cougar Town and Matt Le
Blanc's Episodes - Perry's new shows came and went quickly.
On ABC's 2011 surreal workplace comedy Mr. Sunshine, Perry played Ben Donovan, manager
of a third-rate San Diego sports arena.
ABC canceled it after nine episodes.
In 2013, he returned to NBC with Go On.
In this drama-infused single-camera comedy, Perry played a widower who joins a grief support
group that includes characters played by Broadway star Laura Benanti and alt-comedy icon Brett
Gelman.
This one lasted a little longer than Mr. Sunshine: only 22 episodes.
In 2015, Perry returned to non-ambitious TV sitcoms with the laugh-track-laden sitcom
The Odd Couple, a remake of the '70s classic.
That one survived just 38 episodes.
In the late '80s and early '90s, Matthew Perry was a young character actor working mainly
in TV, particularly on short-lived shows, and usually in guest-starring roles with short
plot arcs.
Of course, Perry won the career lottery when Friends came around.
Unfortunately, when an actor is cast on a hugely popular and long-running show, it can
actually limit their future work possibilities.
As it is, Perry is so inexorably linked with Chandler Bing that it's been hard for him
to break free of the role.
“Dear God, this parachute is a knapsack!”
For a lot of the folks who produce and consume entertainment, it's difficult to view Perry
as anything other than a 20-something smart aleck in a sweater vest.
After playing Chandler Bing more than 240 times, Perry may be locked into the '90s and
his character forever - particularly considering Friends may continue to air in reruns until
the end of time.
Friends fans have clamored for some kind of reunion since about 10 minutes after the show
wrapped in 2004.
Be it a big-screen movie, a reunion special, or a full-on reboot, millions would love to
see Chandler and Monica's nearly-grown twins or find out just how many times Ross and Rachel
have broken up and gotten back together.
Of course, it would take a lot of effort and money to get all the friends back together,
considering they're all pretty busy.
But it doesn’t help that one person in particular is dragging their feet on a comeback.
The one member of the cast who isn't down for a Friends reunion - yet who arguably may
have the most to gain from one - is Matthew Perry.
In 2017, he told Vanity Fair that he simply fears it wouldn't be any good.
He said:
"When I'm asleep, I have this nightmare that we do Friends again and nobody cares.
We do a whole series, we come back, and nobody cares about it.
So if anybody asks me, I'm gonna say no.
The thing is: we ended on such a high.
We can't beat it."
The closest thing to a Friends reunion went down in 2016, with a televised tribute to
prolific TV director James Burrows which featured five out of six friends - but guess who was
missing?
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