Available for streaming on Netflix from October 27, 2026 is The One About Matthew Perry, the docuseries consisting of three episodes that strives to shed light on the man behind the character. In the eyes of many fans, Matthew Perry is and will always be the unforgettable Chandler Bing from Friends, yet behind all that fame there was a man who wrestled with his own difficulties, and his story has been encapsulated in a docuseries that, however, had to do without some names. The audience, in fact, asked a crucial question: why was the cast of Friends not involved?
The One About Matthew Perry, the director explains why the Friends cast chose not to participate in the docuseries
Through The One About Matthew Perry, the docuseries revisits Matthew Perry’s career, recalling his first major success with Friends, while also detailing his private struggles and the investigations that followed his death on October 28, 2023. Three years have passed since then, and Netflix has shared with the audience a new docuseries that includes among the various testimonies also that of his sister Mia Perry Bowick.
However, the Friends cast is absent. To shed more light, the director Mary Robertson spoke up. In an interview with Gold Derby, she confessed that she had tried to involve Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer: “We reached out to them, but they declined to participate. We know the cast of Friends was very close to Matthew in real life and that they are grieving.” In an interview also given to the Los Angeles Times, the director added: “I believe many of those who were close to Matthew were obviously grieving, but also processing the loss and trying to understand and make sense of how and why they lost him. We are really excited that [those who participated] supported this project from the early stages and understood that it could be delicate and uncompromising; that it could be a love letter to Matthew. I deeply value their trust. I deeply value their honesty. They taught me a lot about loyalty in friendship.”
Even though they did not actively participate in the docuseries, the Friends cast remained a fundamental part of Matthew Perry’s life, which is why the episodes nonetheless addressed their precious bond. His sister Mia, born from his father’s second marriage, spoke about his funeral: “The funeral was very intimate, with only close friends and family. I remember sitting in the front row with my family and seeing his mother and all the other brothers and sisters. And then the rest of the Friends cast came in all at once. I hadn’t seen them in at least twenty years. Jennifer Aniston was the first to approach me for a big hug, but then they all did. And then all five gathered around the casket, holding hands, and stayed there around him, crying.”
The director told People that she drew inspiration from Matthew Perry’s memoir titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing published in 2022 and decided to explore his life also through a docuseries. After his death, that need came back to life: “I felt a renewed commitment to shine a light on the totality of his life and his contribution to our culture. I hope we managed to make it entertaining enough for him. I heard from his collaborators that he would have wanted this project to be fun, so I hope we pulled it off, Matthew. We really gave it our best.”
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