In a new interview, the 57-year-old actress details how it felt like to film 2002's 'Serving Sara' at the height of the 'Friends' alum's drug and alcohol addiction.
- Nov 11, 2022
AceShowbiz - Elizabeth Hurley didn't have the best experience while working with Matthew Perry at the height of his drug and alcohol addiction. The actress compared filming "Serving Sara" to a "nightmare," though she has "very fond memories" of the actor.
"To be honest, it was a nightmare working with him at that time," the 57-year-old star shared to Yahoo Entertainment on Wednesday, November 9 of the 2002 rom-com. "And as it's now known, our movie was shut down because of his addiction."
Elizabeth continued, "We were in a force majeure and had to all sit at home twiddling our thumbs for some time." Despite everything, Elizabeth noted that it changed after the "Friends" alum completed his two-month stint in rehab. She shared that the 53-year-old actor "was fabulous" to work with when he returned.
"It was tough, obviously he was having a tough time, but he was still very charming and a lovely person to work with," the "Austin Powers" star continued. "But you could see he was suffering for sure."
Perry, meanwhile, revealed in his new memoir, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing", that Elizabeth and Reginald Hudlin were "pissed off" about the situation. "Of course, the movie tanked anyway," the actor wrote. He explained that it was because he had to shoot a second time because he had slurred his words the first time around.
"I was paid $3.5 million to do the movie and I got sued for the shutdown, even though it was a health issue. At the mediation table a team of insurance flacks faced me down, so I just wrote them a check for $650,000," Perry divulged.
At the time, Perry was working on the rom-com and his hit NBC sitcom at the same time, and that was what led him to spiral. "It was shot in Dallas and I was doing 'Friends' at the same time, so it doubled my workload. And I was flying on a private jet drinking vodka out of a water bottle," he recalled. At the height of his addiction, he shared that he took "55 Vicodin a day," in addition to "Methadone, Xanax" and "a full quart of vodka."
