Matthew Perry has claimed he ‘begged’ producers to change Chandler Bing’s most recognisable line in Friends.
The 53-year-old has written his first memoir, an emotional account of his time in the limelight, titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
Perry starred as Chandler for all 10 seasons of Friends, and recently admitted his appearance changed throughout the course of filming sue to his drug use.
Reflecting on his time in the biggest sitcom ever, Perry’s now revealed that one of Chandler’s personality traits that viewers absolutely loved actually couldn’t BE anymore annoying to him.
In an excerpt published by Variety, he wrote: ‘That particular cadence – could it be more annoying? – had been so played out that if I had to put the emphasis in the wrong place one more time, I thought I’d explode, so I just went back to saying lines normally, for the most part in season six and then beyond.’
However, he only had himself to blame for Chandler’s worn out catchphrase after coming up with what he calls ‘Chandler speak’ himself as a child.
‘I read the words in an unexpected fashion, hitting emphases that no one else had hit. I was back in Ottawa with my childhood friends the Murrays; I got laughs where no one else had,’ he added.
Perry’s Friends co-stars have reached out to the actor about the book, which of course includes plenty of anecdotes with the six Friends leads – Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt Le Blanc and David Schwimmer.
Appearing on Good Morning America, he said: ‘I’ve gotten some really nice texts from a few of them already, and the book isn’t even out yet.’
So hopefully, [I get] more,’ he continued. ‘It’s very important to me that I didn’t go after anyone and I wasn’t gossipy [in the book].’
Friends is available to stream on Netflix UK.