John Mulaney Shares Empathy for Matthew Perry's Battle with Addiction
John Mulaney opens up about his personal connection to Matthew Perry's battle with addiction, expressing his empathy and concern for the former actor
John Mulaney, Matthew Perry. Getty Images (2)
During an interview with Variety on Monday, November 27, John Mulaney, aged 41, drew parallels between his struggles with substance abuse and those of the late Matthew Perry. "Addiction is essentially a disaster. Life is akin to a table at a restaurant- wobbly and unstable with the weight of everything piled on it. Drugs just end up kicking the legs out from under the table," he expressed.
Mulaney, who has been deeply impacted by Perry’s memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, revealed that he felt a strong connection to the actor's personal struggles. Despite not knowing Perry personally, Mulaney shared that he has been reflecting on Perry's story and thinking about him often. (Perry passed away at his Los Angeles home from an apparent drowning on October 28 at the age of 54.) "I really identified with his story. I'm thinking about him a lot," the Big Mouth star shared with the outlet.
Similar to Perry, Mulaney has been open about his struggle to become sober. In September 2019, he revealed that he began drinking at 13 and later began using cocaine and other prescription drugs.
"I drank to get noticed. I used to be really outgoing, but at 12, I wasn't anymore," he told Esquire. "I didn't know how to act. But when I drank, I was funny again. I wasn't good at sports, so maybe it was some kind of young male thing of, 'This is the physical feat I can do.' Three Vicodin and tequila, and I'm still standing. Who's the athlete now?"
At 23, Mulaney made a decision to turn his life around following a "wild" weekend. "I went on a bender that weekend that was just, like, fading in and out of a movie," he revealed to Esquire. "It was just crazy. I didn't harm or attack anyone. But yeah, I was like, 'You're f–king out of control.' And I thought to myself, 'I don't like this guy anymore. I'm not rooting for him.'"
After 20 years of being sober, Mulaney suffered a relapse and entered a treatment program for alcoholism and cocaine addiction in December 2020.
Recalling the experience during an interview with Theo Von on his "This Past Weekend" podcast in April, the former Saturday Night Live writer described walking into his intervention after visiting his drug dealer's apartment and achieving what he believed was the perfect balance of drugs - one pocket filled with cocaine and the other with Xanax.
Upon returning home, Mulaney was greeted by a gathering of people, to whom he stated that he had been drug-free for several days. In October, he expressed his happiness at achieving nearly three years of sobriety after his 2020 relapse.
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"For some reason, I have unintentionally created obstacles for myself that have occasionally left me feeling disoriented and unhappy," he revealed during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. "But fundamentally, I am a happy person. It's important for me to prioritize my happiness by living life on my own terms. I don't want to be the cause of unnecessary complications in my own life."
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free and confidential information available 24/7.
