Matthew Perry. Rob Kim/Getty Images
Matthew Perry allegedly eliminated a major storyline in Friends where his character, Chandler Bing, cheated on Monica Geller (Courteney Cox).
In the season 5 episode “The One in Vegas: Part 1,” Monica and Chandler get in an argument about her going to lunch with ex Dr. Richard Burke (Tom Selleck). In the initial version of the script, Chandler then orders room service and ends up talking with a hotel worker, played by Lisa Cash. One thing leads to another, and he cheats on Monica.
“We had rehearsed it and everything, and then the day before we were shooting in front of a live audience, I was told that [Matthew] went to the writers and said the audience would never forgive him for cheating on Monica,” Cash, 54, told TMZ on Monday, November 6. “He was probably right. That would’ve changed possibly the course of the show and his character.”
Despite thinking the role would’ve been “kinda a game changer” for her, Cash confessed she thought Perry’s decision to ax the plot point was “smart.”
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“I think it was a good move,” Cash confessed. “Because they had that other thing with the Ross and Rachel ‘we were on a break,’ but Chandler and Monica weren’t on a break. This was a decision that he was gonna make to cheat on her.”
At the end of the 10-season sitcom, Monica and Chandler were married with adopted twin children and decided to move to the suburbs. As for where the twosome would stand now, Friends cocreator Marta Kauffman exclusively shared her thoughts with Us Weekly in 2019.
Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston. Paul Drinkwater/NBC via Getty Images
“I think Monica and Chandler are together. They have their twins. They’re doing great,” Kauffman, 67, said at the time.
While Cash didn’t star as a controversial figure in Monica and Chandler’s relationship, she did end up landing a role as a flight attendant in a scene with Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). She reflected on her experience as a guest star on the hit series and praised Perry for making her feel included.
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“It was just really so neat to work with him,” she said. “Because I was coming in and I was new to the industry and it could’ve been really intimidating for me. Like, season 5 of Friends in a scene with Matthew Perry! But I just felt so comfortable, and he was really likable and welcoming and just made me feel at ease.”
She continued: “And I had fun, it was just really fun doing the scene with him. And it was easy doing the scene with him too because that was just such a tribute to him for making me feel comfortable with him like that.”
News of Perry’s shocking death broke on October 28 after law enforcement officers were called to his home, where he was found “unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi.” A few days later, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department said he was “deceased prior to first responder arrival.” He was 54.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has “deferred” the cause of his death after the initial autopsy. The initial results were inconclusive pending a toxicology report.
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