\n<\/p>\n
Because he was already committed to appearing in a different sitcom pilot, \u201cL.A.X. 2194,\u201d Perry initially settled for coaching other actor friends on how to play Chandler for their auditions. \u201cThere were times I just acted Chandler out for them and told them to copy what I\u2019d done, so sure was I that it was the right way to play him,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
But even with Perry\u2019s assistance, Chandler\u2019s delivery did not land the same. \u201cNo one could do it,\u201d Crane told Vanity Fair. After \u201cL.A.X. 2194\u201d failed to get picked up, Perry won the role that would make him famous.<\/p>\n
Some aspects of Chandler Bing were autobiographical morsels mined from the show\u2019s writers \u2014 a bit of Crane\u2019s personality plus experiences borrowed from Jeff Greenstein (who once held a dubious data-processing job) and Jeff Strauss (whose parents announced their divorce at Thanksgiving). But much of the character\u2019s personality, like his discomfort with silence and need to fill it with quips, came directly from Perry.<\/p>\n
Once he made it through a week of auditions and callbacks, \u201cChandler was born,\u201d he wrote. At first, the writers would underline words in the script that they hoped Perry would emphasize, but they learned that he would just emphasize a different word instead, so they started underlining the words they didn\u2019t <\/em>want him to emphasize. \u201cIt was a funny process,\u201d Kauffman said in an interview with Vulture<\/a>. They also sometimes invited Perry to improve upon their punchlines and suggest new ones, as seen in a 1999 Discovery Channel documentary<\/a> about the show.<\/p>\n Eventually, though, Perry got sick of using his trademark cadence. \u201cCould it be<\/em> more annoying?\u201d he asked in his memoir. It felt played out. Most of the characters had already mocked Chandler for it. \u201cIf I had to put the emphasis in the wrong place one more time, I thought I\u2019d explode,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n He considered begging the producers for a reprieve, though he ultimately just went back to saying the lines normally. But it was too late: Chandler-speak had permeated the culture in America and beyond. Language teachers have credited \u201cFriends\u201d<\/a> with helping people around the world learn English, a claim echoed by international celebrities like the Korean pop star RM, from BTS<\/a>, and the Cuban and Spanish actress Ana de Armas<\/a>. (\u201cCould I be<\/em> any better at English?\u201d de Armas joked during her April monologue<\/a> on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d)<\/p>\n Whatever his feelings about his trademark during \u201cFriends,\u201d Perry in recent years seemed to have made his peace with it. Earlier in the pandemic, he promoted T-shirts that read \u201cCould I <\/a>be<\/em><\/a> any more vaccinated<\/a>?\u201d He also had a little fun at his own expense in his memoir, writing that he imagined his epitaph might be: \u201cHere lies Matthew Perry \u2014 He Broke Up With Julia Roberts, or Could I Be<\/em> More Stupid or Dead?\u201d It\u2019s a funny line, but one that\u2019s harder to laugh at this week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n