Matthew Perry had recalled a heartwarming incident regarding the remuneration of the Friends cast in his memoir

Matthew Perry’s sad demise on October 28, 2023, has plunged his fans and the entire Hollywood fraternity into gloom. However, it has also led to a plethora of anecdotes coming out from the shooting of Friends which only highlighted the beautiful bond between the cast members. According to the Guardian, the remuneration of the cast members underwent a change during the filming of the show in the 90s.

In his memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, Matthew mentioned how all the cast members were earning $22,000 for each episode starting from Season 1. However, as the audiences began to be more interested in the romantic track of Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), the duo’s salaries increased slightly more than the others. Perry recalled that after the onset of Season 3, makers wished to increase the remuneration of David and Jennifer but the former protested against the same.

The 17 Again actor said that David suggested that everyone should come together and bargain with the makers to pay equally to the cast even if it means a pay cut for him and Jennifer. In his memoir, the late actor said, “David had certainly been in a position to go for the most money, and he didn’t. I would like to think that I would have made the same move, but as a greedy 25-year-old, I’m not sure I would have."

Perry remembered hos Schwimmer’s initiative gave so much power to all the cast members to negotiate their salaries. He added, “But his decision served to make us take care of each other through what turned out to be a myriad of stressful network negotiations, and it gave us a tremendous amount of power ... We had David’s goodness, and his astute business sense, to thank for what we had been offered. I owe you about $30m, David." Well, this endearing anecdote just shows the unity, love and respect that Matthew and the rest of the cast members had for each other.