Matthew Perry apologizes for asking why Keanu Reeves 'still walks among us' in his new memoir
Matthew Perry is pivoting away from some perplexing remarks he made about Keanu Reeves.
The Friends actor has apologized for asking why the John Wick star "still walks among us" not once, but twice in a passage about celebrity deaths from his forthcoming memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.
"I'm actually a big fan of Keanu," Perry said in a statement to PEOPLE. "I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead."
In the book, Perry recalls how much the late actor River Phoenix inspired him when they worked together on the 1988 film A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon. As he mourns Phoenix's 1993 death, Perry, who like Phoenix struggled with addiction, references Reeves, who was one of Phoenix's closest pals and frequent collaborators.
Theo Wargo/Getty Images; Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Matthew Perry and Keanu Reeves
"River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down," Perry writes. "Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?"
Perry name-drops Reeves again in the memoir when he discusses working with late comedian and former Saturday Night Live star Chris Farley, who like Phoenix died from a drug overdose.
"His disease had progressed faster than mine had," Perry writes, describing his reaction to Farley's death. "I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston's dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us."
Representatives for Perry and Reeves did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
In addition to pondering how addiction has shaped the lives of his peers, Perry, who has entered rehab 15 times over the years, addresses his own struggles with substance abuse and his near-death experiences due to addiction.
"I didn't know how to stop," he writes. "If the police came over to my house and said, 'If you drink tonight, we're going to take you to jail,' I'd start packing. I couldn't stop because the disease and the addiction is progressive. So it gets worse and worse as you grow older."
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing is out Nov. 1.
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