Lisa Kudrow’s tribute to her Friends co-star Matthew Perry took it back to the start. “Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts,†she wrote. “Then…You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that.†At Perry’s suggestion, the cast played poker together a lot, enough that it inspired the episode “The One With All the Poker.†From the show’s beginning, the closeness of the Friends cast was one of its biggest selling points. “The best way that I can describe it is after the show was over, at a party or any kind of social gathering, if one of us bumped into each other, that was it,†Perry said on the HBO Max reunion special. “That was the end of the night. You just sat with the person all night long and that was it.â€
Kudrow went on to thank Perry for everything he gave during the 10 years of Friends, “the best 10 years a person gets to have,†as she put it. “Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY. Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’
Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant,†she wrote. “Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you. Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.â€