The “Friends” cast knew they struck gold after the very first table read for the pilot. Matthew Perry recalled meeting his co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — in his 2022 memoir, and how director Jimmy Burrows encouraged them to bond in Monica Geller’s apartment on set.
“Immediately, there was electricity in the air,” Perry wrote in “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,” one year before his tragic death.
“We talked and joked, about romance, our careers, our loves, our losses. And the bond that Jimmy knew would be critical had begun,” he continued. “Courteney — the only established amex of the group back then — said, ‘There are no stars here. This is an ensemble show. We’re all supposed to be friends.’”
At the time, Cox had already scored roles on “Family Ties” and “Ace Ventura” and was featured in Bruce Springsteen’s “Dancing in the Dark” music video. But much to Perry’s surprise, she didn’t say, “I’m the star.”
“Hell, she could have had her lunch somewhere else, and we would have to have been fine with it. Instead, she simply said, ‘Let’s really work and get to know each other.’ She said it’s what she’d noticed about how it worked on ‘Seinfeld,’ and she wanted it to be true about ‘Friends,’ too,” he wrote. “So we did what she suggested. From that first morning we were inseparable.”
Perry and the rest of the group were unsure how the first reading would go, but he ultimately realized that they “were ready” and “the universe was ready” to hear the stories of Chandler Bing, Monica Geller, Ross Geller, Rachel Green, Phoebe Buffay and Joey Tribbiani.
“Would the chemistry we’d only just started to create show up, or were we just six young hopefuls making believe that this would be our big break?” Perry wondered in his memoir. “We were pros — the lines flew out of our mouths. No one made a mistake. All the jokes landed. We finished to thunderous applause.”
“Everyone could smell the money. The cast could smell fame,” he added. “This show was going to work, and it was going to change everyone’s lives forever. I swear there was a popping sound; if you listened really closely, you could hear it. It was the sound of people’s dreams coming true.”
And with that, the cast became household names and they would make history in 2002 by scoring the first-ever $1 million per episode paycheck each. They negotiated together, with Schwimmer appearing to lead the charge by going to Perry before Season 2 with his salary idea.
“‘Matty,’ he said. ‘I’ve been thinking. When we renegotiate our contracts, we should do it as a team. We should all get paid the same amount.’ He was by far the one in the best position to negotiate. I could not believe what he was saying. Needless to say, I was thrilled. I was perfectly happy to take advantage of his generosity of spirit,” Perry recalled in his memoir.
“It was a decision that proved to be extremely lucrative down the line. David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn’t,” he added. “By season eight, we were making a million dollars per episode; by season two we were making even more. We were making $1,100,040 an episode, and we were asking to do fewer episodes. Morons, all of us.”
The historic move would be repeated when the leads of the CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory” would eventually also earn $1 million per episode.
Perry’s memories with his “Friends” cast have resurfaced the past few weeks following the late actor’s death of an apparent drowning at his California home on Oct. 28. He was 54.
Perry was laid to rest at at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills on Nov. 8. His burial location is across from the Warner Bros. studios, where the cast filmed “Friends” for 10 years until its 2004 series finale.