Friends guest star John Stamos recalls how the late Matthew Perry helped him during an embarrassing moment during his one-off appearance. The Full House star is one of several actors to pay tribute to Perry, who died at the age of 54 on Sunday. Stamos played Zach, Chandler’s co-worker and a potential sperm donor for him and Monica, and he shared the bulk of his screen time with Perry.
In an Instagram post, Stamos recalled how Perry helped him during his Friends season 9 appearance for “The One with the Donor.”
In the caption of Stamos’ post, the guest star shares that he had been friendly with Perry long before Friends. He recalls Perry telling him that the audience would go crazy after seeing his guest appearance, but then he walked out to silence. Stamos recalls being “embarrassed” and reveals that Perry rallied the crowd to cheer once Stamos finished filming: “Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for John Stamos! You guys probably didn’t recognize him at first because he’s so much better looking in person,” Stamos recalls Perry saying.
Perry Was An Excellent Scene Partner On Friends
Perry is remembered for delivering some of the best lines on Friends and always seeming to know which words to hit to make a line reading stand out. But he was also a generous scene partner, knowing when to cede the spotlight and how to play off the actors he shared the screen with. For example, Maggie Wheeler is a standout in her recurring role as Janice, but her appearances sparkle because of her frequent pairing with Perry, who knew exactly how to calibrate Chandler’s exasperation with Janice.
It’s different to how Perry approaches Chandler’s scenes, not just with Monica (Courteney Cox) but even with Rachel (Jennifer Aniston). There are relatively few one-on-one scenes between Rachel and Chandler and even fewer storylines between them. But the ones they did have, as in Chandler comforting Rachel or their cheesecake dalliance, stand out because Perry could bring out a warmth that exceeded what was on the page.
There’s also the bond with Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Chandler, which was just as important in those early seasons of Friends as any romantic relationship. The ability to bring that sincerity to an on-screen friendship between two male characters remains a relative rarity. Stamos’ story is another example of how, as a performer, Perry often elevated the material and worked well with his co-stars.
