‘A man of insight, empathy and intellect’: Fans react to Matthew Perry debating drug reform on BBC
One of the late star’s most iconic TV appearances wasn’t on Friends, but when he was arguing for drug policy reform on the BBC.
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Matthew Perry spoke candidly about his own struggles with substance abuse over the years as a frank and fearless advocate for addiction recovery.
Just one year before his shocking death at the weekend – at his Los Angeles home, aged 54 – Perry said he wanted to be remembered for being more than an actor who brought one of sitcom television’s most-beloved characters to life.
And it seems his fans are keen on making his request come true in the wake of his passing; digging up, between their favourite Chandler Bing moments, footage of the beloved and talented star at his earnest Matthew-Perry-best.
One such clip is of Perry appearing on the BBC current affairs program Newsnight for a debate about drug addiction in 2013.
He appeared alongside Baroness Molly Meacher, an advocate for drug policy reform, and controversial conservative author and commentator Peter Hitchens.
The panel were invited onto the prograFm to discuss specialist drug courts, wherein former drug addicts would sit as magistrates in order to pass a more informed Judgement on abuse-related offences by nonviolent addicts.
Mr Hitchens disputed the reality of drug dependency, calling it a “fantasy of addiction”.
Mr Hitchen’s central argument – that he reiterated in his essay The War We Never Fought: The British Establishment’s Surrender To Drugs – was that addicts chose to abuse substances.
Perry, on the other hand, spoke from personal experience and evidence of the success of special reform programs like the drug court.
“I’m a drug addict, I’m a person that if I have a drink I can’t stop. And so it would be, following your ideology, that I’m choosing to do that,” Perry starts.
“That’s exactly my - not my ideology, it is my belief. Yes, you do choose. You have a choice,” Mr Hitchens said.
Mr Hitchens challenges the actor to explain an “objective diagnosis... to establish the existence of addiction in the human body”.
But when Perry starts to explain the “allergy of the body”, the author pulls a face and laughs.
“It was supposed to be grown men here and you’re making faces...” Perry said, before continuing.
“It’s an obsession of your mind and an allergy of your body. So this is what happens to me. I start thinking about alcohol, I can’t stop. I can’t stop thinking about it.”
Mr Hitchens, again, demands “objective, physical proof of this inability to stop thinking” about substances, arguing addiction is “will power” because people “constantly stop” taking substances.
“It’s not will power,” Perry replied. “You’re just a person who’s talking who’s wrong.”
“I’m in control of the first drink,” he added.
“And so I do all these things to protect myself from not having the first drink. But once I have that drink, the allergy of the body kicks in – this is all documented alcoholism proof – then I then I can’t stop after that.”
Mr Hitchens laughs at the suggestion and interrupts again: “Allergies of what? I’m allergic to aspirin but that doesn’t mean I have to drink.”
But Perry gets the final word, cutting him down expertly: It’s an allergy of the body … Not that your aspirin point wasn’t genius, but you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
That is just one of their many clashes on the show. Things apparently became so heated between the pair that the show’s producer was told to remove them from the BBC building via separate exits, The Independent reports.
Perry later recalled the appearance in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing – which gave even more insight into his struggles with addiction.
He remembered Peter Hitchens as “a complete tool”.
“I can’t imagine what it’s like to have a sibling whom everyone adores when you’re the idiot brother everyone loathes, but I think Peter could well be able to weigh in on what that feels like,” Perry wrote, referring to his older brother, the renowned British journalist Christopher Hitchens.
“Sadly, Peter, is still pontificating on things he has no idea about, mixing right-wing ideology with a kind of paternalism and moral tutting.”
He also wrote that the journalist sounded “like some insane great-aunt who’d had one too many glasses of sherry”.
“I like to think that both the Baroness and I ran rings around him – but frankly, that wasn’t hard,” he wrote, adding the panel ended up laughing at “how stupid and cruel Hitchens sounded”.
Mr Hitchens reacted to his cameo in the memoir when it came out saying it was “fine by me”.
“Matthew Perry, an actor, who thinks debate consists of calling your opponent names, now calls me a ‘complete tool’ as he resurrects his bizarre 2013 clash with me on Newsnight,” the author wrote on X, then Twitter.
Matthew Perry, an actor, who thinks debate consists of calling your opponent names, now calls me a ‘complete tool’ as he resurrects his bizarre 2013 clash with me on Newsnight. Fine by me. https://t.co/qT2HKNrslr
— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) November 1, 2022
He later told The Independent, he believed Perry’s “problem” was that “he never normally meets anyone who disagrees with him”
“That could be why, nine years later, the episode still rankles, and still strikes him as an important bit of his life,” Mr Hitchens told the outlet.
“I tried to argue with him. He mostly responded by calling me names, and he still seems to be doing this. I have a rather low opinion of people who try to use my late brother’s memory against me, and I wish he had not done that.”
But in the wake of Perry’s death, the footage is circulating on social media again with the actor’s fans marvelling at how expertly he dealt with Mr Hitchens.
Some said they cannot believe he stayed so calm during the exchange, while others said that he raised points about addiction they never thought about before.
“Remarkable how he kept his cool despite the ever odious Peter Hitchens. What a tragic loss,” one fan wrote.
Remarkable how he kept his cool despite the ever odious Peter Hitchens. What a tragic loss.
— Dave Powell (@davidmpowell17) October 29, 2023
Thank you for posting this! I was telling friends and wasn’t sure if I had imagined it. He was a man of insight, empathy and intellect. He had so much more to say
— Chauncey Gardiner (@ChaunceyGard) October 29, 2023
Really interesting point Matthew makes here- only being in control of whether he takes the first drink. After which he looses total control. I’ve never thought of addictions that way b4
— science experiment (@squashlemo) October 29, 2023
"You're just a person who's talking who's wrong." Possibly the best Perry quote ever.
— Nina Johnson (@ninaleejohnson) October 29, 2023
“Really interesting point Matthew makes here - only being in control of whether he takes the first drink. After which he looses total control. I’ve never thought of addictions that way (before),” another fan wrote.
“He was a man of insight, empathy and intellect. He had so much more to say.”
Perry once revealed though he knew he would be known forever for his role as Chandler Bing on Friends, he wanted to be remembered as much more.
Speaking about his desired legacy on the Q With Tom Power podcast in 2022 during the publicity blitz for his memoir, Perry explained that he wanted to be remembered not for his acting, but for helping others with addiction.
He became addicted to Vicodin in 1997 after a jet ski accident and underwent his first of 15 rehab stays in 2001. The actor later transformed his Malibu home into a sober living facility called Perry House.
Originally published as ‘A man of insight, empathy and intellect’: Fans react to Matthew Perry debating drug reform on BBC
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