Meaning of “Matman” – The Hollywood Reporter

“I’m Mattman.” Those were the last words spoken by Matthew Perry, in a cryptic Instagram post on October 22, accompanied by a photo of… friends The star is lounging in his hot tub, the lights of the Pacific Ocean twinkling on the horizon. Six days later, Perry was found unconscious in the same hot tub, and was pronounced dead shortly after at the age of 53.

And the mystery of “Matman” – Perry’s “rosebud” – will deepen further. Was it a symbol? Inside joke? TikTok conspiracy theorists wondered if this was a cry for help.

In fact, Perry was obsessed with Batman. In 2017, he spent $20 million on a 10,000-square-foot “mansion in the sky” filled with a “bat cave” to store his Caped Crusader memorabilia. It was the largest condo sale of that year. He said Perry bought it partly to live out his Bruce Wayne fantasies. (Rihanna purchased the property in April.) The final chapter of his 2022 memoir about addiction, Friends, lovers, and the big, terrible thingTitled “Batman”. Mattman — or Mattman, as Perry says in his memoirs — was also part of this fantasy. He was convinced it would be his way back.

How serious is Perry about Mattman? In November 2020, on set Don’t look upapproached Adam McKay — who cast Perry in a small part as a TV newscaster in the film about an asteroid heading toward Earth — about producing the project.

For Perry, who just two years ago narrowly escaped death after his colon exploded due to long-term opioid use, the chance to star in a high-profile satirical film alongside Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence and Jonah Hill was the chance of a lifetime.

Casting director Francine Meisler first suggested Perry to McKay. “I was like, ‘Man, I haven’t seen him in a while,'” says McKay, 55. “I knew he had some health issues. And so I met him and he was so cool. Francine and I talked about the fact that he’s famous for friends character, but he’s been in a lot of movies and other shows, and he’s always been good at everything he does. He always showed up in this really specific way.

“So I met him and he was amazing. He described how he had major surgery involving his lower intestine and he almost died, and that was a really big operation, but you could tell he had recovered. He came back, and I was very excited to do the movie with him.”

But when Perry showed up for filming, there were clear signs that he was not feeling well. “His energy was low,” McKay says. “It looked unhealthy. It was just the kind of thing where you’re like, ‘Are you okay?'” It was during COVID-19 and before the vaccine came out, so it was actually a very risky shoot. I remember being a little bit anxious — like “Hey, have you had a coronavirus test?” He was like, “Oh yeah, I’m clean.”

MacKay had experience working with brilliant comedians who were paralyzed by their own demons. On October 25, 1997, MacKay was the head writer Saturday Night Live When Chris Farley returned to the show to host. “Farley’s addiction was so big, so obvious, so exciting. I remember Lorne (Michael) taking him in because he hoped it would remind him of the love he had for this business. Obviously, that didn’t end well. Farley died of a cocaine and morphine overdose seven weeks later, on 18 December.

Likewise, MacKay was hoping to get the role in Don’t look up It might get Perry back on track: “Selfishly we wanted him in the movie – he’s very talented – but we also hoped that doing the movie would be a little bit of a foothold to get some degree of rhythm back in the business, and hopefully remind him how good he is.” He was.”

At some point between takes, Perry approached McKay with the idea for his own Mattman. The pitch was this: “It’s about this guy,” Perry said. “You’ll recognize him. His name is Matt and he’s very famous and he’s about 50 years old. His life is a bit of a mess. He’s lost. Suddenly, a distant relative dies and leaves him two billion dollars – which he uses to become a superhero.

MacKay was fascinated by the pitch—not because he wanted to make Mattman, but because it offered a window into Perry’s mind. “Any movie idea is like someone telling you their dream,” he explains. “And obviously there was some kind of meaning behind it. And when I heard this idea, I said, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, that’s the idea he wants to do.’

MacKay wondered if Perry’s focus on superpowers was somehow an appeal to his higher power. Perry may have resigned himself to his death. But, like Batman, Perry has dedicated a significant portion of his life and millions to helping others. He wanted his fellow addicts to find sobriety. This work will continue after his death with the newly announced Matthew Perry Foundation.

Perry envisioned himself playing the title role, but was flexible as to whether it should be a film or a series. MacKay encountered his own idea, one that was lower in concept but no less autobiographical.

“My idea was just to do a show about being a very popular, famous TV guy who deals with addiction,” McKay says. “Because the world has changed. You can actually do this show now. Ten years ago, people would have said you were crazy. But now people can be more honest about their mental health issues, their addiction issues, and that’s kind of cool.”

“Why don’t we just put on a show that’s a fictionalized version of what you’ve been experiencing,” he continued, offering to Perry. “The idea that everywhere you go, people are shouting your little catchphrases about your past, and addiction, and what it’s like, because everyone is looking at you through the lens of this cheerful, bright, multicolored show. And then, in the meantime, you’re a human being dealing with addiction.” “Real, real pain. It can be an incredible show. It can be really funny. It can really impact people’s lives.”

But Perry had no interest in the offer. “It’s not the kind of idea you throw at someone,” McKay says. “So I was like, ‘Okay.’”

As for Don’t look upPerry finished one scene in Boston before flying by private jet to a rehab facility in Switzerland, where he faked pain symptoms in order to convince doctors there to prescribe him 1,800 milligrams of OxyContin per day. Ultimately, McKay cut Perry’s character from the film, “which was really, really bad.”

“Actually, I didn’t know Switzerland was a rehabilitation center,” McKay says. “I thought it was a health cleanse or something. Call me naive.”

A version of this story first appeared in the November 8 issue of the magazine Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.