The writers had the scene ready to go but Matthew Perry convinced them to cut it.
The writers had the scene ready to go but Matthew Perry convinced them to cut it.
Matthew Perry made the writers of Friends change a controversial cheating storyline.
The actor, who died last month aged 54, played Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom with Courteney Cox as his girlfriend/wife Monica and it’s now been revealed the pair were supposed to be caughtup in a scandal with Perry’s character cheating on her during a trip to Las Vegas in a 1999 episode titled ‘The One in Vegas: Part 1′.
The revelation was made by actress Lisa Cash, who was hired to play a hotel worker who brings room service to Chandler’s room after he has a huge fight with Monica.
“The scene was Chandler and Monica were arguing In Vegas about Monica having lunch with [ex-boyfriend] Richard and in our script, Chandler goes up to the hotel room and orders room service and I bring it up as a hotel worker,” Cash told TMZ.
“And we end up talking and laughing and connecting and Chandler ends up cheating on Monica with my character.”
However, Perry didn’t feel comfortable with the storyline and he went to the writers and asked for it to be changed.
Lisa added: “We had rehearsed it ... and the day before we were supposed to shoot it in front of a live audience, I was told that [Perry] went to the writers and said the fans will never forgive [Chandler] for cheating on Monica. He was probably right. That would have possibly changed the course of the show.”
The cheating scenes were removed from the script and Lisa’s part was cut. However, she was given the chance to appear in a different scene as a flight attendant with Ross and Rachel - played by David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston.
Lisa added: “They were so nice for not completely cutting me out of the episode .”
She also praised Perry for making her feel welcome and comfortable on set and insisted the writers made the correct decision by removing Chandler’s cheating scene.
“They had that whole other thing with the Ross and Rachel ‘we were on a break’ but Chandler and Monica weren’t on a break. It was a decision that he was going to make to cheat on her. In the moment ... but I don’t think the audience would have really forgiven that. So I think it was smart,” the actress added.
Perry died last Saturday, October 28, aged 54. The Friends star is believed to have drowned hours after a game of pickleball, and in a redacted 16-second recording of a 911 dispatch call obtained by TMZ, a man can be heard saying “rescue 23″ and “drowning”.
An autopsy is pending and the coroner is reportedly prepared to do a toxicology examination, but the results could take several months.
