Charlie Sheen could tell Matthew Perry 'wasn’t sober’ while promoting his own memoir

Actor Charlie Sheen has reflected on Friends star Matthew Perry’s struggles in the months before his untimely death from ketamine toxicity.

American star Charlie Sheen has shared his thoughts on Canadian actor Matthew Perry’s struggles in the months before the Friends star died from the effects of ketamine in 2023.

Charlie Sheen spoke about Matthew Perry's battle with substance abuse

During a recent appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the 60-year-old actor said that he noticed troubling signs while Matthew was promoting his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. “I could tell he wasn’t sober, talking about a book that is all about sobriety and recovery,” Charlie said on the show.

“I felt really bad, I felt bad for him. When I heard a little snippet from the audiobook, he didn’t have that perfect, specific, laser-focused diction that he always had, delivering comedy or anything at the level that he did. So, I could hear a man who was … handicapped,” he added.

Charlie admitted he wished he had reached out at the time. “I didn’t know Matthew that well. … I read his book, and I read it in a day and I loved it. And I’m so proud of him and inspired by it,” he explained. “Then I wanted to reach out, you know, because I’m in his book … when he says, ‘Eff Charlie Sheen and I’m going to be that famous one day too.’ And I didn’t. I think he died, like, three weeks after I read the book,” he added.

The Platoon actor, who is currently promoting his own memoir The Book of Sheen: A Memoir and a Netflix documentary, aka Charlie Sheen, said he related to Matthew’s struggles with addiction. “I could feel that sort of the prison that he, you know, put himself in,” Charlie said.

Matthew was found unresponsive at his Los Angeles home in October 2023, and was pronounced dead the same day at age 54. A toxicology report later confirmed he died from the “acute effects of ketamine.” The report noted he had been receiving infusions of the drug for anxiety and depression, though his last session occurred more than a week earlier.