Culture

“My Mistake”: Matthew Perry Has Apologised For Cursing Keanu Reeves’ Existence

"I just chose a random name. My mistake. I apologise."

by Reena Gupta  28 October 2022

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Matthew Perry has apologised for unexpectedly bemoaning Keanu Reeves’ existence in his new memoir Friends, Lovers, And The Big Terrible Thing. We will now begin to consider removing him from our burn book.

Perry, who famously starred as Chandler in Friends during the ’90s and ’00s, came under fire yesterday when excerpts from his memoir were revealed to take an unexpected swing at beloved actor Keanu Reeves — by all accounts, for simply existing in this world.

“Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?” Perry writes in the memoir. The words “Keanu Reeves still walks among us” emerges more than once in the memoir — the second time, in italics and in reference to the death of comedian Chris Farley.

After receiving swift pushback for his comments, as you’d expect when publicly expressing unexpressed anger for one of the world’s most beloved actors, Perry has since issued an apology.

“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu,” the actor told People. “I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologise. I should have used my own name instead.”

Yes, slinging shots at Keanu Reeves of all people was definitely a choice. Reeves may be one of the few public figures who seem to be universally liked, transcending generational divide, gender divides; maybe even political ones. As Wesley Morris from the New York Times put it, Reeves is an “unknowable icon, the internet’s adorably tragic boyfriend, [and] a prolific actor who never seems to be acting.”

Perry’s apology isn’t the only thing to emerge after the release of his memoir — actor Valerie Bertinelli has reacted to his claim that the two made out while her husband at the time Eddie Van Halen was passed out via a TikTok slapped with the words “ANYONE ELSE MISBEHAVE IN THEIR 20s and EARLY 30s?”

I’m not sure what the take home message is here, but it might be that there’s a reason actors make a living from saying things that other people wrote for them. (With, of course, the exception of Keanu Reeves.)