Matthew Perry Is Removing Keanu Reeves Excerpt From His Book

Author Laila Abuelhawa

April 25th, 2023 3:06 PM

Matthew Perry plans to remove an ominous passage from his memoir. As we previously reported, the Friends star wrote about his disdain for Keanu Reeves’ life. Perry wrote in his memoir, “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” In Perry’s first movie, A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon (1988), Perry acted alongside Reeves’ longtime best friend River Phoenix. In the film, Perry plays Phoenix’s best friend and they became close while filming in Chicago. River tragically overdosed at age 23 in 1993.

RELATED: Matthew Perry Opens Up About Addiction In New Memoir

Perry remembered River as a “beautiful man inside and out and too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down.” Perry recounted the day he heard the news of Phoneix dying outside the Viper Room in West Hollywood, adding, “I heard the screaming from my apartment; went back to bed; woke up to the news.”

Elsewhere in the book, Perry took another dig at Reeves, 58, following Chris Farley’s death at age 33 in 1997. Perry co-starred with Farley on the 1998 comedy Almost Heroes. At this point, Perry was battling addiction at the height of his Friends fame. Once again, Perry didn’t think it was fair that Reeves was still alive, writing, “I punched a hole through Jennifer Aniston’s dressing room wall when I found out. Keanu Reeves walks among us.”

Not So Neighborly

Now, Perry, 53, said that he will remove the John Wick star’s name from future editions of his 2022 memoir that covers his journey with substance abuse and addiction. Per People, the actor said he pulled his name because they live on the same street. “I’ve apologized publicly to him,” Perry said. “Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”

He admitted, “I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do.” Perry said. If he ever runs into Keanu, he added that he will apologize. “It was just stupid,” he added. In November, a source said that Keanu “thought the comments came out of left field. It’s kind of backfired on Matthew anyway, which is why he had to apologize.”

Keanu Reeves' 10 Best Films

• Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

  The rom-com is based on William Shakespeare’s play of the same name. Hero (Kate Beckinsale) and her fiance Claudio (Robert Sean Leonard) team up with his commanding officer, Don Pedro (Denzel Washington), the week before their wedding to hatch a matchmaking scheme. Their targets are sharp-witted duo Benedick (Kenneth Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson) — a tough task indeed, considering their corresponding distaste for love and each other. Meanwhile, meddling Don John (Keanu Reeves) plots to ruin the wedding.

• Point Break (1991)

  After a string of bizarre bank robberies in Southern California, with the crooks donning masks of various former presidents, a federal agent, Johnny Utah (Reeves), infiltrates the suspected gang. But this is no ordinary group of robbers. They’re surfers — led by the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) — who are addicted to the rush of thievery. But when Utah falls in love with a female surfer, Tyler (Lori Petty), who is close to the gang, it complicates his sense of duty.

• Speed (1994)

  Los Angeles police officer Jack Traven (Reeves) angers retired bomb squad member Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) by foiling his attempt at taking hostages. In revenge, Payne arms a bus with a bomb that will explode if it drops below 50 miles per hour. With the help of spunky passenger Annie (Sandra Bullock), Jack and his partner Harry (Jeff Daniels) try to save the people on the bus before the bomb goes off, while also trying to figure out how Payne is monitoring them.

• Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

  Francis Ford Coppola directs this film adaptation based on the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Count Dracula (Gary Oldman), a 15th-century prince, is condemned to live off the blood of the living for eternity. Young lawyer Jonathan Harker (Reeves) is sent to Dracula’s castle to finalize a land deal, but when the Count sees a photo of Harker’s fiancée, Mina Murray (Winona Ryder), the spitting image of his dead wife, Elisabeta, he imprisons him and sets off for London to track her down.

• Hardball (1994)

  For a change of pace, Reeves stars in this sports film as Conor, a ticket scalper, gambler and Little League coach for a rag-tag team of kids in one of the toughest parts of Chicago. He’s no role model, but his buddy Jimmy won’t help him pay off his gambling debts unless Conor coaches Jimmy’s corporately sponsored team. Surprising even himself, Conor becomes attached to his players — and to their attractive schoolteacher (Diane Lane) — and drawn into their tough and sometimes tragic lives.

• Constantine (2005)

  Based on the DC/Vertigo Hellblazer comics, Reeves stars as demon hunter John Constantine. As a suicide survivor, he has literally been to hell and back — and he knows that when he dies, he’s got a one-way ticket to Satan’s realm… unless he can earn enough goodwill to climb God’s stairway to heaven. While helping policewoman Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz) investigate her identical twin’s apparent suicide, Constantine becomes caught up in a supernatural plot involving both demonic and angelic forces.

• John Wick (2014)

  You do NOT mess with this man’s dog. When a gangster’s son steals his car and kills his dog, fearless ex-hitman John Wick takes on the entire mob to get his revenge. The movie has been a success, leading to three sequels. The fourth installment of the John Wick franchise is set to release March 24, 2023.

• Devil's Advocate (1997)

  Aspiring Florida defense lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) accepts a high-powered position at a New York law firm headed by legal shark John Milton (Al Pacino). As Kevin moves up in the firm’s ranks, his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), has several frightening, mystical experiences that begin to warp her sense of reality. With the stakes getting higher with each case, Kevin quickly learns that his mentor is quite literally the Devil himself.

• The Matrix (1999)

  Keanu is the One, I mean, Neo. In his undeniably most iconic role, Neo believes that Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) can answer his question — “What is the Matrix?” Neo is contacted by Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), who leads him into an underworld where he meets Morpheus. They fight a brutal battle for their lives against a team of secret agents.

• My Own Private Idaho (1991)

  In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Henry IV,” Mike Waters (River Phoenix) is a gay hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor (Keanu Reeves) is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike’s estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

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Author Laila Abuelhawa

Category:

• Celebs
• Entertainment News
• WJBR

Tags:

Keanu Reeves,Matthew Perry