One day, after struggling with a prolonged episode of addiction, actor Matthew Perry of Friends fame had a revelation for his family: he was going to write a book.
At the time, they were incredulous.
“Going from one meal to another was a struggle for him,” recalled his stepfather, Keith Morrison, in an interview with CBC Radio’s Q. “The idea that he could actually sit down and write a book? It was wild.”
But he did it. Before Perry died last October at the age of 54, his book sold millions of copies and reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list.
After his death, his sister Caitlin Morrison — with the help of Perry’s agent, manager, childhood friends, and others — started the Matthew Perry Foundation in his memory.
“When he was willing to take this piece of himself that was so difficult to talk about … because he knew that it might make people brave enough to ask for help, I think that was the proudest I ever was of him,” she told CBC.
The Canadian branch of the foundation launched Thursday in Ottawa, a year after Perry’s death.
Caitlin and Keith Morrison were joined at the event by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and Mark MacAulay, president and CEO of local charity Salus Ottawa.
It just made sense to hold the launch in Canada’s capital, Caitlin said, as it was where she and Perry spent their childhoods together.
“Whenever I watch my daughter, who’s three, having a complete laughing fit over something that my son is doing, I feel brought back to that [time],” she said. “I feel like I’m in Ottawa, watching an old video of us.”
Fame an ‘added layer of difficulty’
Perry’s fame and wealth — which gave him “endless money to throw at the problem” — isn’t representative of the reality facing most addicts, Keith Morrison acknowledged.
“He attempted to have some opioids FedEx’ed to him in a major New York hospital while he was being treated for drug addiction,” Keith remembered.
“When you have fame, it’s an added layer of difficulty, because you can kind of get whatever you want.”
It’s something Perry also acknowledged himself in an interview on Q before his death.
“Not many books have come from the side of the addict,” he said. “Certainly not [from] somebody who’s been on one of their favourite shows.
“That message is very powerful, because I thought [fame] would fix everything. And you know, it didn’t — I still wanted to drink every day.”
The experts the Matthew Perry Foundation have spoken to generally agree that Canadians struggling with addiction can usually access treatment, Caitlin Morrison said.
But it’s the part after the treatment, she added, that isn’t so easy.
They have to keep up good habits, pay the bills, get a job, buy groceries, and more. That’s what Caitlin wants the foundation to support them with.
“We hope that that is an approach that will give people that sort of strength and autonomy to fight the toughest battle of their lives,” she said.