Matthew Perry‘s comedic genius was apparent from the very first episode of Friends.
That’s according to storied television director James Burrows, who helmed the pilot “The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate,” and would go on to direct 15 total episodes throughout the iconic NBC comedy’s 10-season run. Burrows spoke to the Today show on Thursday, one day after Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane also opened up to the outlet about the immense loss of losing Perry at age 54.
The actor died over the weekend on Saturday; he was found unresponsive at his Los Angeles home and his cause of death is still pending.
Looking back on the very first episode of Friends, initially known as “The Pilot,” Burrows recalled how inventive Perry was with performing a single line as well as his facial expressions, whether or not the camera was on him.
“Reading around the table, Matthew had a certain way of turning a line,” he said of Perry, calling his casting as the awkward yet beloved Chandler Bing a “perfect meld.”
“Matthew could always cut to his face,” Burrows said. “He was always aware that, even though he wasn’t speaking, he was on camera.”
Burrows called out the season one episode “The One With the Blackout,” where Chandler gets trapped in an ATM vestibule with Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre, as his all-time favorite performance.
And he shared the devastation among the tight-knit cast following the news of Perry’s passing.
“He was part of a family, and he was the first one to not be part of that family anymore,” he said. “I texted the girls [Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow] the day we found out and they were destroyed. It’s a brother dying.”
In a previous joint statement, the quintet, also including Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, said: “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just castmates. We are a family. There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss. In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends and everyone who loved him around the world.”
Burrows also recalled how he brought the six then-young and largely unknown actors on a trip to Las Vegas before the first episode aired in 1994. At a dinner at Spago, he said to them, “Put your seatbelt on, because this is your last shot at anonymity.”
Perry, who opened up in detail about his decades-long battle with addiction and substance abuse in his 2021 memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing and subsequent press tour, spoke about the support he felt from his castmates, who all reunited in May of 2021 for the long-awaited Friends reunion special, which aired on Max.
In their interview, Kauffman and Crane spoke about their concerns at the time for Perry while filming the reunion. “Knowing he had been through everything he’d been through and every time he had surgery, they’re giving him opioids for pain, and the cycle starts over again. So yes, I was concerned about what point he was in the cycle at that moment,” said Kauffman.
Speaking in his Thursday segment, Burrows said, “We were so proud of him these last couple of years that he was making this remarkable recovery.”
That sentiment had been echoed by Kauffman and Crane when they shared how they spoke to Perry two weeks before his death. Kauffman said Perry was sober and happy at the time: “He didn’t seem weighed down by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why this seems so unfair.”