Intervju i Instyle

MATTHEW PERRY - MAN OF STYLE

By Lisa Simson

His ninth (and final) season on FRIENDS is about to begin, but Matthew Perry still has a few aspirations for his TV alter ego, the perpetually flummoxed Chandler Bing. "I hope he drops the safe job and deals with the panic that comes with that", says Perry, who has endured his own growing pains - most publicly a couple of stints in rehab over the past five years. Things are back on track now for the 33 year old actor, who stars in the new movie "Serving Sara" and is set for a sequel to "The Whole Nine Yards". His newfound serenity has even made its way into his wardrobe. "My style is much calmer now", he says.

You've played one character for eight years. Exactly how much are you like Chandler? We're very much alike. But Chandler is funnier, more neurotic, more emotional. He's an exaggerated form of myself.
What was your style growing up? I would wear three Lacoste shirts so there would be three collars. Everybody would be wearing T-shirs to school and I'd wear a suit and tie because that's what Michael J. Fox did on "Family Ties".
Where you popular as a kid? I was the most popular of the geeky kids.
Your dad, actor Bennett Perry, was the Old Spice guy in TV commercials. What was his influence on you? He's my favorite guy in the world. He's also stupidly good-looking. I'd bring girls home and they'd stop looking at me. It was very depressing. But he taught me to have a full life away from acting, which I didn't pick up until much later.
How are you now leading a full life? Downtime is very valuable to me. I used to not read books unless I knew that somebody was going to walk in and see me. Now I find there's value in reading just for me.
You've been through a lot recently. With all the drama, what have you learned? I can look you in the eye and say that I don't have irrational fear in my life anymore. I spent a solid year working on that because I would wake up in the middle of the night and be scared.
You've been linked to various women. Are any of the stories true? Well, I'm a red-blooded Canadian-American male. But some of the stories are just not true. Jennifer Capriati is a good friend of mine; there's nothing romantic there. I'm lucky that I have the time and can afford to go and watch my friend play in the French Open. I certainly don't want the image of a playboy guy who dates everybody - that's not my thing.
Would you like to be in a relationship? I want to be married and have kids and find the right person to do that with. I finally feel like I have become the kind of person who could earn someone worthwhile.
So what do you look for in a mate? I'll tell you what really intrigues me: people who have had torture in their lives and rolled their sleeves up and gotten to the other side. Those are the fun ones to talk to.
Have you reached the other side? For better or worse, I'm a selfaware guy. Now that I have goten through some of the dark things in my life, I am entertained by the little bent view I have of the world.
What's the weirdest thing you've ever worn? You know how it's "in" to wear kooky pants? I call it the David Arquette style. I went to some store and bought the ugliest pants I have ever seen. They're like blue grandma pants. I wore them at my little sister's birthday party. My family said, "What are you doing?" I said, "I'm sorry, this is what people are wearing now - pants that look bad." I might send them to David.
You're known as an avid tennis player. How good are you, really? When I was about 4, my grandfather taught me how to play. By the time I was 8, I could beat him - but I waited until I was 10. I was beating the best players in the club by age 11. I was getting the attention I was craving. But I wasn't good enough to make a career of it.
Is it a handy releasy for aggression? I'll regress to my childhood on the cout sometimes. But I'm not really an angry guy. If you wrong me, I'm going to go somewhere away from you. I'm going to take it out on you. I'm not the bullish kind.
What do you find sexy on a woman? I am embarrassed to say, but my favorite look ever is the little floral dresses from around '95 or '96 that they wore with white socks. I also like those tank tops that girls wear with the bra strap that is a different color. I don't like overdone women, and I don't like women who really don't make an effort at all.
What does romance mean to you? My viewpoint on this has totally changed. Now romance is looking somebody in the eye and caring about what they are saying. I used to think about how much longer I would have to sit and listen until we did something I wanted to do. Now I'm a big "soft music, candles, get the girl flowers, open the door for her, stand up when she leaves the table" kind of guy.
FRIENDS end this spring after nine seasons. Have you imagined what it will be like to say goodbye? The end of the show is going to be sad, sad, sad - not a dry eye in the house. I just picture Aniston; somebody's going to have to pick her up off the ground. We will never have a situation like this again, and everybody realizes that. When these six people say goodbye to each other, it's going to be pretty heavy. I don't even like to think about it.

Credit till Always-FRIENDS som jag tagit texten från.

2002-10-13