Matthew Perry Recalls Buying 100 Xanax Pills To Keep Up With Bruce Willis’ Partying

Matthew Perry bought 100 Xanax pills so he could keep up with Bruce Willis’ partying.

The 53-year-old former pills and booze addict made the purchase before shooting ‘The Whole Nine Yards’ with Bruce, 67, who he said he “desperately” wanted to befriend.

In his now-out memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, Perry said he purchased the pills before shooting Willis' 2000 comedy, The Whole Nine Yards. 

“So, I’d gotten The Whole Nine Yards and had embarked on a friendship with the most famous movie star on the planet, but even I knew I was drinking way too much to pull this movie off.

“Desperate measures would be needed. Some might be able to party perfectly well and still show up and do the work — but they weren’t addicts like I was.”

He added he thought about buying the huge Xanax haul from a friend to allow him to keep boozing: “This way I can drink with Bruce and the others but then when I’m finally alone I can just pop one of these and go to sleep.”

But the Friends actor admitted: “I may have been a man with a plan, but I was also ignoring the fact that this was a completely lethal combination.”

Perry, who played Chandler Bing on all 10 seasons of Friends from 1994 to 2004, added in his book the cast of The Whole Nine Yards partied every night on the hotel floor Willis had rented out, which was nicknamed Club Z.

He said: “At night, the parties raged under Bruce’s disco ball in Club Z. Somehow, everyone still managed to show up at 6am for work.

“I say ‘somehow’, but I know how: those hundred Xanax worked like a charm.

“Though combined with my drinking they did tend to make my head resemble a Spalding Basketball.

Meanwhile, Mr A-list Willis over there looked like he could open an envelope with his chin.”

Perry landed a role in The Whole Nine Yards while relapsing after a period of sobriety.

He added about his hero worship of his co-star: “Bruce Willis did not disappoint — he oozed A-list. He didn’t just take over a room, he was the room.

“Bruce laughed at all my dumb jokes — he seemed to enjoy the spectacle of a younger, funny guy paying his due respect and keeping up with his drinking (if only he knew.)

“I was thrilled to be around him because he knew how to live life... when the veil of Bruce Willis was removed, I just wanted to be his friend. I didn’t want to suck up to him like everybody else in the world.

“But there was a big difference between Bruce and me. Bruce was a partier; I was an addict.

“Bruce has an on-off button. He can party like crazy, then get a script like ‘The Sixth Sense’ and stop partying and nail the movie sober.

“He doesn’t have the gene — he’s not an addict.”

In the book, Perry also revealed Willis' "caring" side. 

"Sometimes, at the end of the night, when the sun was just about to come up and everyone else had gone, and the party was over, Bruce and I would just sit and talk," said Perry. "That's when I saw the real Bruce Willis — a good-hearted man, a caring man, selfless. A wonderful parent. And a wonderful actor. And most important, a good guy." 

Willis and Perry were together again in a Season 6 episode of Friends in 2000 and in the Whole Nine Yards sequel, 2004's The Whole Ten Yards, which was both a commercial and critical dud. 

The two lost touch after that. 

"And if he wanted me to be, I would be his friend for life," Perry lamented. "But as is the way with so many of these things, our paths rarely crossed after that." 

He added, "I, of course, pray for him every night now."  

When Willis announced his retirement after being diagnosed with aphasia, Perry offered his support for the actor in a heartfelt post. 

He tweeted then, "Dear Bruce Willis, I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through, but you're still the coolest man I've met in my entire life. You will remain in my prayers for a long long time.

"Maybe we should get together and watch the whole 10 yards and get a couple of hours of sleep." 

 Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing is now in stores. — BANG SHOWBIZ

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos