John Mulaney Says He ‘Really Identified’ With Matthew Perry’s Story Amid His Own Addiction Struggles

Though comedian John Mulaney never met Matthew Perry, their lives had many parallels. Perry was very open about his struggles with addiction throughout his career, while Mulaney has also spoken publicly about his substance abuse issues, most recently in his standup special, Baby J. 

“Addiction is just a disaster,” Mulaney told Variety in a recent interview. “Life is like a wobbly table at a restaurant and you pile all this s**t on it, and it gets wobblier and wobblier and more unstable. Then drugs just kick the f**king legs out from under the table.” 

Mulaney read Perry’s 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, saying he related to the actor’s battles. 

“I really identified with his story. I’m thinking about him a lot,” Mulaney said of Perry. 

Perry died at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28. He was 54. The Los Angeles Fire Department reported that the actor was found unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi, and despite efforts to revive him, he was declared deceased before first responders arrived. An initial autopsy by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner was inconclusive, pending a toxicology report for confirmation of the cause of death.

Mulaney, who is three years sober, also spoke about crafting his comedy special, Baby J, which details his 2020 relapse and becoming a father to son Malcolm with actress Olivia Munn. 

“I kept asking friends, ‘Do I come off like too much of an a**hole?'” he said. “Jimmy Kimmel saw it at the Troubadour and said, ‘Yes, but you have to keep it all.'”

He admitted to being hesitant about sharing the darker parts of his story with audiences. 

“I’ve had bits my entire career where I think, ‘Oh, this is a little dark. I don’t know if people are going to go with this,'” he recalled. “For some reason, I attract an audience from 70 years old to 7, and I’m aware of how this is going to play with the great big group that I’m very lucky to have assembled. I just knew that this vein would be interesting to people.”

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