# Is Matthew Perry getting worse as an actor?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [May 6, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041 "2016-05-06T02:17:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/1 "2016-05-06T02:17:00Z")
Chandler was my favorite character on “Friends” and Perry’s movies haven’t been completely disappointing. I find “The Odd Couple” unwatchable and Perry’s acting atrocious. What has happened to him?
---
### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/2 "2016-05-06T02:28:10Z")
From what I understand the role of Chandler was basically written to fit Perry’s strengths.
This version of Odd Couple isn’t written for anyone.
I think Perry may need to go back into rehab – not that I think he has a problem, just that it would give him an excuse to get off the show.
---
### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/3 "2016-05-06T03:07:26Z")
He gave great performances on _The West Wing_ and _Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip_ that were dramatic roles completely different from his role on _Friends_. So I have to feel his current problem is that he’s being asked to deliver poorly written lines.
Does that absolve Perry? Heck, no. Perry produces the series and is one of its writers. So he’s responsible for those poorly written lines. Perry the actor needs to get away from Perry the producer and writer.
---
### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/4 "2016-05-06T05:48:41Z")
He’d be a good Jack Tripper in the _Three’s Company_ movie. If he was 20 years younger.
---
### Author:  [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/5 "2016-05-06T13:40:01Z")
I’ve wondered if the new “Odd Couple” might have been better with Perry playing Felix, and having someone else playing Oscar. But I agree that the writing stinks, and between that and CBS’s persistent laugh-track-turned-up-to-11, I don’t think it would make much difference.
---
### Author:  [@Orwell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orwell)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/6 "2016-05-06T13:49:06Z")
The same question has crossed my mind. Thomas Lennon is quite good on the Odd Couple, but Perry delivers every line the same way. Yeah, the writing isn’t great, and all of the characters are one-dimensional, but Perry really isn’t capturing Oscar. I liked him better in his last two TV series, Go On and Mr. Sunshine, than in the Odd Couple.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/7 "2016-05-06T13:50:57Z")
> [@Shoeless](#):
>
> I’ve wondered if the new “Odd Couple” might have been better with Perry playing Felix, and having someone else playing Oscar.
What, like Matt LeBlanc?
---
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/8 "2016-05-06T14:04:11Z")
As others said, the big problem is the poor writing. And that’s something I’m often amazed at. It just goes to show just how hard it is to to write a comedic show well; presumably this show (and other unfunny ones like Two Broke Girls) has a healthy budget and could hire decent writers. Meanwhile the few actually good sitcoms manage to hire writers who can write funny.
---
### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/9 "2016-05-06T14:07:11Z")
> [@Orwell](#):
>
> The same question has crossed my mind. Thomas Lennon is quite good on the Odd Couple, but Perry delivers every line the same way. Yeah, the writing isn’t great, and all of the characters are one-dimensional, but Perry really isn’t capturing Oscar. I liked him better in his last two TV series, Go On and Mr. Sunshine, than in the Odd Couple.
I agree with this. Sure, the writing on _The Odd Couple_ is nothing to write home about, but the rest of the cast (Lennon, Lindsay Sloane, Yvette Nicole Brown, and Wendell Pierce) are all performing professionally, doing the best they can with the lackluster material they’re given.
Perry, on the other hand, looks like they grabbed him out of the cast of a high school play. He seems to have no variation in his facial expressions, and his line deliveries are all a sort of exasperated shouting, regardless of what emotion he’s supposed to be conveying. It’s a noticeably poor performance, and in my opinion it goes far beyond simply badly written material. It’s strange, because we know that Perry is capable of much better work.
---
### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/10 "2016-05-06T14:27:01Z")
Admittedly I probably only saw a handful of episodes of _Friends_ but what I have seen of Matthew Perry would cause me to be more surprised if he was even competent in a role. I have only seen a small percentage of his work - a couple of movies and a few different TV episodes and he has been the worst thing about each of them. I don’t get the impression that he ever could act.
---
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/11 "2016-05-06T14:35:29Z")
I’m pretty sure that the alcoholism hasn’t done him any favors. I saw him on a talk show a while back, and he had that weird slurred speech impediment like Carrie Fisher does, which wasn’t the case 20 years ago.
---
### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/12 "2016-05-06T14:39:51Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#):
>
> \*\*Perry, on the other hand, looks like they grabbed him out of the cast of a high school play. He seems to have no variation in his facial expressions, and his line deliveries are all a sort of exasperated shouting, regardless of what emotion he’s supposed to be conveying. \*\* It’s a noticeably poor performance, and in my opinion it goes far beyond simply badly written material. It’s strange, because we know that Perry is capable of much better work.
Bolding mine.
This is exactly what I was thinking in the OP. It seems that the only emotion that he displays is “Exasperated Chandler”. Granted, he’s no Lawrence Olivier under the best of circumstances but I know that he knows at least two volume levels. At least, he used to.
---
### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/13 "2016-05-06T14:50:01Z")
Perry was on **The Late Show With Stephen Colbert** a few weeks ago and he physically seemed off. Most notably something seemed wrong with his mouth. I hadn’t actually noticed anything wrong with it on the first season (or first half?) of _The Odd Couple_ but now that it’s back on I notice Perry’s weirdness.
I googled “[matthew perry’s mouth](https://www.google.com/search?q=matthew+perry%27s+mouth)” after I saw him on \*LSSC \*and there were a ton of hits regarding his January appearance on _The Graham Norton Show_ (in England) and how he was weird and “the Internet” was all abuzz about it. I did see that show but I guess I didn’t find him to be too weird…but I did eventually notice it a couple months later on _LSSC_.
ETA: \*\*bump \*\*posted while I was writing this. Looks like he saw the same weirdness on LSSC as I did (or Graham Norton).
---
### Author:  [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/14 "2016-05-06T14:54:58Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> Perry was on **The Late Show With Stephen Colbert** a few weeks ago and he physically seemed off. Most notably something seemed wrong with his mouth. I hadn’t actually noticed anything wrong with it on the first season (or first half?) of _The Odd Couple_ but now that it’s back on I notice Perry’s weirdness.
>
> I googled “[matthew perry’s mouth](https://www.google.com/search?q=matthew+perry%27s+mouth)” after I saw him on \*LSSC \*and there were a ton of hits regarding his January appearance on _The Graham Norton Show_ (in England) and how he was weird and “the Internet” was all abuzz about it. I did see that show but I guess I didn’t find him to be too weird…but I did eventually notice it a couple months later on _LSSC_.
>
> ETA: \*\*bump \*\*posted while I was writing this. Looks like he saw the same weirdness on LSSC as I did (or Graham Norton).
Graham Norton…
---
### Author:  [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/15 "2016-05-06T15:02:00Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#):
>
> ETA: \*\*bump \*\*posted while I was writing this. Looks like he saw the same weirdness on LSSC as I did (or Graham Norton).
I also saw that episode of Colbert (I did not see him on Graham Norton), and I noticed that he seemed to be slurring his “s” sounds, and in general having trouble getting some of his words out.
There was a lot of internet speculation that he might have had a small stroke, which Perry’s publicist has denied. The claim is that he was tired during that appearance, having just flown in from London where he was about to open his new play. Which is somewhat plausible–he did look awfully haggard, and I haven’t noticed the speech impediment on any episodes of _The Odd Couple_ itself.
---
### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/16 "2016-05-06T15:07:15Z")
I’m pretty sure I never expected to see the double entendre laced phrase, “I googled Matthew Perry’s mouth.” But now I have.
---
### Author:  [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)
#### Post date: [May 6, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/17 "2016-05-06T17:03:56Z")
The answer to the OP is, no, he is not getting worse…he was never very good to begin with.
---
### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2016, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/18 "2016-05-07T03:14:19Z")
That. David Schwimmer did ads for the Illinois lottery and all I could think was how he had won a bigger lottery of his own. No talent, total, between them.
eta: Even less, counting LeBlanc.
---
### Author:  [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/19 "2016-05-07T03:34:44Z")
INAD. I have seen people in my life who have had some issues with minor or mini strokes and I hope it isn’t that.
---
### Author:  [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2016, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041/20 "2016-05-07T05:39:47Z")
I think the biggest factor is that it’s just the wrong role for him. While I get wanting to play against type, I simply don’t buy him as Oscar Madison. Not that I want him to try to impersonate Matthau or Klugman, but they embodied a certain hangdog quality that just isn’t there in Perry, and it’s the essence of the character.
Otherwise, I don’t mind the show. Actually, I kind of enjoy it. Thomas Lennon kills it as Felix. The supporting cast is pretty good. It’s a very old-school sort of sitcom, which seems to be putting a lot of people off, but I’m OK with that. I grew up on those kinds of sitcoms, and the cast and writers at least seem self-aware of what they’re trying to be.
Perry’s definitely the weak link, though. Years of hard living obviously haven’t done him any favors.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-matthew-perry-getting-worse-as-an-actor/754041.md?page=2)