Matthew Perry once joked about being seriously in debt to his Friends co-star David Schwimmer, and the resurfaced quote is speaking to the close bond shared between the hit show’s cast.
The duo shared the screen with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc from the first episode to the show’s conclusion in 2004.
In a section of his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew explained why he was eternally indebted to the actor who played Ross.
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In the section of his memoir, which was rediscovered by The Guardian, Matthew explained that David and Jennifer were at one point the top paid stars on Friends.
However, David saw the importance of paying the central cast equally and had a conversation with Jennifer who agreed. They offered to take a pay cut to even out everyone’s paychecks.
“David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn’t,” Matthew recalled. “I would like to think that I would have made the same move, but as a greedy 25-year-old, I’m not sure I would have. But his decision served to make us take care of each other through what turned out to be a myriad of stressful network negotiations, and it gave us a tremendous amount of power.”
Their pay continued to rise over the years, eventually peaking at over $1 million per episode.
“We had David’s goodness, and his astute business sense, to thank for what we had been offered. I owe you about $30m, David,” he wrote.
David and the rest of the central cast issued a joint statement reacting to the tragic news of Matthew‘s passing. They reunited to attend his funeral in Los Angeles.
