Actor Matthew Perry speaks onstage through the sixty fourth Annual Primetime Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre … [+]
Excerpts from Matthew Perry’s upcoming memoir, by which Perry will get candid along with his struggles with habit, have been inspiring headlines for a number of weeks. One passage, which took a random, mean-spirited jab at Keanu Reeves, sparked backlash on-line, prompting an apology from Perry.
Within the passage, Perry discusses his shut friendship with the late River Phoenix, and his response to Phoenix’s loss of life in 1993 from an overdose.
“River was a gorgeous man, inside and outside — too stunning for this world, it turned out,” Perry wrote within the ebook. “It at all times appears to be the actually gifted guys who go down. Why is it that the unique thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, however Keanu Reeves nonetheless walks amongst us?”
It’s an odd, tasteless jab that appears to return out of nowhere, and Perry repeats the sentiment in a later passage the place he describes his response to the loss of life of Chris Farley, who additionally died from an overdose.
Perry writes. “I punched a gap by way of Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall after I discovered. Keanu Reeves walks amongst us. I needed to promote ‘Virtually Heroes’ two weeks after he died; I discovered myself publicly discussing his loss of life from medicine and alcohol. I used to be excessive your entire time.”
There aren’t many “unproblematic” celebrities on the market these days, and Reeves is among the few who stays nearly universally beloved, particularly on-line. So many celebrities have been outed as abusers, or turn into consumed by bigotry, whereas Reeves has a fame of being a genuinely beautiful individual.
Therefore, the web immediately got here to his protection.
Some speculated that Perry may be nursing some sort of private grudge in opposition to Reeves, whereas others famous that the jab was significantly merciless, contemplating that Reeves has skilled greater than his fair proportion of grief and loss.
In response to the flood of condemnation, Perry shortly apologized, and tried to make clear his intentions. In a assertion to Individuals Journal, Perry mentioned:
“I’m truly a giant fan of Keanu. I simply selected a random title, my mistake. I apologize. I ought to have used my very own title as a substitute.”
Some commentators have been confused by Perry’s apology, as Reeves didn’t appear to be a random title in any respect; like Perry, Reeves was as soon as shut buddies with River Phoenix.
In earlier interviews, Reeves has been candid about how a lot he nonetheless grieves the late actor. In an interview with Esquire, Reeves mentioned Phoenix, stating:
“It’s bizarre talking about him previously. I hate talking about him previously. So I nearly at all times gotta hold it current. He was a extremely particular individual, so unique, distinctive, good, gifted, fiercely artistic. Considerate. Courageous. And humorous. And darkish. And lightweight. It was nice to have identified him.”
Maybe Perry, who rose to fame within the nineties, the place “edgy” humor was rather more well-liked, was merely making a nasty joke that actually didn’t land; tastes have modified, as audiences have turn into extra empathetic.
These days, that sort of mean-spirited humor has turn into strongly related to right-wing provocateurs, or fading comedians clinging on to relevancy by way of controversy.
No matter Perry was considering, he certainly realized his lesson – by no means goal Keanu Reeves, essentially the most beloved man on the web.
