Matthew Perry spent millions of dollars trying to get sober during his long struggle with addiction, and his younger sister is speaking publicly about those years in a new Netflix documentary about his life.
Mia Perry Bowick appears in the trailer for the three-part series The One About Matthew Perry. “He spent $7 million trying to get sober,” she says. “That’s how seriously he took his disease.” Netflix says the project is the first time Perry Bowick has spoken about her brother on camera.
Perry had discussed the cost himself years before his death. In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he wrote that he had spent more than $7 million trying to get sober. During the book’s promotional tour, he told The Washington Post that the true amount was probably closer to $9 million.
The One About Matthew Perry premieres Oct. 27, one day before the third anniversary of Perry’s death. The series combines interviews with his sister, longtime friends, collaborators and people he met through recovery with previously unreleased photographs and videos from his family’s private archive.
Mia Perry Bowick Says Her Brother Spent $7 Million Trying to Get Sober
Perry Bowick talks in the trailer about the loneliness her brother described even after he had achieved the television success he once wanted. She remembers him speaking about an emptiness he was trying to fill while addiction continued to consume large parts of his life.
She also remembers how differently he responded to making people laugh. According to PEOPLE, Perry Bowick says comedy made her brother feel good and describes his life as containing both comedy and tragedy.
Perry Bowick is a licensed psychotherapist, writer and speaker. Netflix says she grew up with Perry in Los Angeles and later became a psychotherapist partly because she wanted to understand his addiction.
She said she needed time before she was ready to talk publicly about loving her brother through the difficult periods of his life. Her memories in the documentary cover Perry as a brother and friend as well as the performer millions of viewers knew as Chandler Bing.
Perry Later Said the Real Cost Was Probably $9 Million
The $7 million figure had appeared in Perry’s own account before his sister repeated it for the documentary. A Los Angeles Times review of his memoir reported that Perry said he had spent more than $7 million trying to get sober.
His recovery history included 15 stays in rehabilitation facilities, about 6,000 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and decades of therapy, according to the newspaper’s account of the book. Perry also wrote about repeated relapses and serious medical problems during the years covered by the memoir.
He revised the financial estimate upward while promoting the book. In a November 2022 Washington Post interview, Perry said he had written that rehab cost him $7 million but now believed he had probably spent $9 million.
Perry was also clear about why he had chosen to publish so much of that history. He spoke repeatedly in 2022 about wanting other people with addiction to know that help was available. In the supplied PEOPLE interview, he discussed how severe his addiction had become and said he was grateful to be alive after the medical crises he survived.
Two Friends Who Knew Perry for More Than 40 Years Are in the Documentary
Netflix’s interview list reaches back to Perry’s life before Friends. Roger Castillo met him in Los Angeles when Perry was 17 and remained his friend for more than 40 years. Years later, Castillo drove him to the audition for the sitcom that would change his career. Netflix says Castillo has not previously spoken about Perry on camera.
Actor David Pressman also knew Perry for more than four decades. The two were part of a group of aspiring actors who spent time at the Formosa Cafe in Los Angeles. His documentary appearance is also his first time speaking about Perry on camera, according to Netflix.
The series includes people who watched Perry’s career take off from the television side as well. Former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield greenlit the pilot that became Friends, while Jeff Strauss worked as a writer and producer during the show’s first season. Longtime friend Kevin Pollak, who appeared with Perry in The Whole Nine Yards, The Whole Ten Yards and Numb, also participates.
Other interviewees include Fools Rush In producer Doug Draizin, director Jonathan Lynn and actor Nate Torrence. Director Mary Robertson, whose credits include Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, directed all three episodes of the series.
Some of Perry’s Closest Recovery Connections Are Telling Their Stories Too
Several participants knew Perry through recovery rather than television or film. Tim Harrington met him at a recovery meeting in 2001. The two later became roommates, and Netflix says Harrington credits Perry with saving his life.
West Huddleston worked with Perry through addiction-policy advocacy. As CEO of All Rise, formerly the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, Huddleston worked with him on campaigns supporting drug courts. Perry had publicly promoted treatment-focused alternatives for people whose criminal cases were connected to substance-use disorders.
That work had occupied Perry for years. He used his former Malibu home as a sober-living residence and received a Champion of Recovery award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in 2013. He also spoke publicly about drug courts in the United States and Britain.
Perry died at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28, 2023, at age 54. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner determined that the cause of death was the acute effects of ketamine. Drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine were listed as contributing factors. His death was ruled accidental.
A federal investigation into the ketamine supplied to Perry led to prosecutions against five defendants. On May 27, 2026, his former live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death and serious bodily injury. The Justice Department identified Iwamasa as the fifth and final defendant sentenced in the case.
The One About Matthew Perry premieres on Netflix on Oct. 27.