Friends alum Paget Brewster has shared an unforgettable memory from working opposite Matthew Perry on the hit sitcom, highlighting the late actor’s “gentlemanly” behavior.
Brewster, best known for her role as FBI profiler Emily Prentiss on the long-running crime drama Criminal Minds and its ongoing reboot Criminal Minds: Evolution, starred in Friends as Kathy, Chandler’s brief fling, whom he steals away from Joey (Matt LeBlanc) in season four.
Speaking to The Independent in a new interview, the Huff star recalled the moment Perry invited her back to his house to play a game of basketball to kill time in between scenes.
“I remember we had one day where Matthew and I were not going to be in scenes for about three hours. And so he said, ‘Hey, do you want to go? Do you want to go play basketball at my house? It’s just up Mulholland [Drive in Los Angeles]. And I was like, ‘Sure, let’s — I’ll go play basketball at your house,’” Brewster recounted.
“It was in his pool... and we’re throwing hoops, and I was wearing a pair of his shorts and my bra,” she explained, clarifying that it was completely innocent. “He was dressed. I was dressed, but I threw a shot, and my bra slipped down, and Matthew — I’m laughing — and he looks at me, and he [puts his hand over his eyes] and goes, ‘You’re, you gotta, you might wanna take a look at that.”
She remembered Perry being “such a gentleman and a sweetheart” after the mishap. “He was really a lovely guy. And I’m really glad I was able to read his book before he passed,” Brewster added, referring to Perry’s harrowing 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
“He’s definitely missed,” she said.
Perry was 54 when he was found dead at his Los Angeles home in October 2023 from a ketamine overdose.
While Perry had been undergoing ketamine therapy for anxiety and depression, U.S. attorney Martin Estrada, who oversaw the case before stepping down in January, alleged that ahead of his death, Perry had been administered 27 doses of ketamine outside his prescribed therapy.
Five people have since been charged in connection with his death, including two doctors, his live-in personal assistant, and an alleged drug dealer known as “the Ketamine Queen.”
Following Perry’s passing, Brewster shared a tribute on X, writing: “I’m so very sad to hear about @MatthewPerry. He was lovely to me on Friends and every time I saw him in the decades after. Please read his book. It was his legacy to help. He won’t rest in peace though. He’s already too busy making everyone laugh up there.”
Brewster was introduced during season four of Friends as Joey’s girlfriend, Kathy, whom Chandler inadvertently falls in love with and ends up briefly dating. She appeared in a total of six episodes, leaving after a jealous Chandler accused Kathy of cheating, prompting them to break up.
Years after her guest appearance on the seminal sitcom, Brewster went on to land her breakout role as Special Agent Prentiss in season two of Criminal Minds. Despite stepping away from the show two separate times, she finally returned to the series for good in season nine, where she has remained ever since.
The new season of Criminal Minds: Evolution premieres on May 7 on Paramount+, with episodes released weekly until the season finale on July 10.
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