Lisa Kudrow Thanks Matthew Perry for “Showing Up” When He Wasn’t “Well” and “Being Completely Brilliant” in Touching Tribute

Lisa Kudrow is opening up about her decades-long friendship with Matthew Perry in the wake of his passing. After her fellow Friends co-stars, Matt LeBlanc, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, and David Schwimmer, shared their tributes to the late actor earlier this week, Kudrow posted her own heartfelt homage on Wednesday, thanking Perry for all that she “learned about grace and love through knowing” him.

“​​Shot the pilot, Friends Like Us, got picked up then immediately, we were at the NBC Upfronts. Then … You suggested we play poker AND made it so much fun while we initially bonded. Thank you for that,” Kudrow captioned a Polaroid of her and Perry posing arm-in-arm at an NBC event. 

“Thank you for making me laugh so hard at something you said, that my muscles ached, and tears poured down my face EVERY DAY,” the actress continued. “Thank you for your open heart in a six way relationship that required compromise. And a lot of ‘talking.’”

Referencing Perry’s struggle with addiction, Kudrow added, “Thank you for showing up at work when you weren’t well and then, being completely brilliant. Thank you for the best 10 years a person gets to have. Thank you for trusting me.”

“Thank you for all I learned about GRACE and LOVE through knowing you,” she concluded. “Thank you for the time I got to have with you, Matthew.”

Kudrow’s post wasn’t the only time that she’s referenced Perry’s struggle with addiction throughout their friendship. In 2022, she wrote the foreword to the actor’s memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, where she opened up about not realizing the extent of the actor’s struggles until years later.

In the passage, she wrote that reading the memoir was “the first time I’m hearing what living with and surviving addiction really was. Matthew has told me some things, but not in this kind of detail,” later adding, “He has survived impossible odds, but I had no idea how many times he almost didn’t make it. I’m glad you’re here, Matty. Good for you. I love you.”