Morgan Fairchild almost didn't play Matthew Perry's mom on “Friends” but thought the show had 'great potential'
Morgan Fairchild won over Friends fans with her unforgettable portrayal of Matthew Perry's screen mom — but she almost didn't take the part.
In a new interview with David Yontef on the Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, the actress recalled that she was advised to turn down the offer to play Nora Bing, mother to Chandler, on the beloved sitcom, which was not yet a massive hit. (The podcast was recorded before Perry's unexpected death at 54.)
"Several people said, 'You're too young to play that guy's mother, and you shouldn't do that,'" Fairchild remembered. "And I said, '[I] gotta make that transition at some point, you know, I might as well. And I think the show has potential."
Fairchild said that Perry, who was 19 years her junior, alleviated her doubts on their first day working together. "The first day on the set, Matthew came over to me and said, 'Oh, you won't remember me but my father is John Bennett Perry, and he played the sheriff on Falcon Crest and on Flamingo Road, and I used to visit the set with him when I was 9,'" she recalled. "I'm like, 'Oh, God, I guess I could be this kid's mother.'"
NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images Matthew Perry and Morgan Fairchild on 'Friends'
The actress went on to explain why she thought Friends would have legs. "I had seen it a few times and I thought the kids were really good individually, but [it also had] really good ensemble work," she said. "It's two different talents, and I thought [the] show had great potential. I was right."
Fairchild also noted that her first appearance on the show was heavily advertised, and she recalled running into Perry and castmate Matt LeBlanc soon after they discovered that the episode was a hit. "They were out at luncheon and said, 'You got us in the top five. You got us in the top five,'" she said. "And I thought, 'Oh great, I'll be back next week.' Who knew it would be three years before I come back."
The actress repeatedly described shooting Friends as "great fun," primarily because of the way that its writing differed from other shows. "[Ordinarily] if you're the guest star, you don't get great lines, you get great setups for the stars," she said. "But with Friends, they wrote great lines for the guest stars too, and so it was always fun to do. [You] always knew you'd have something good to say and fun to do, and the kids were fun and smart."
Like many of Perry's friends and colleagues, Fairchild paid tribute to the late actor in the wake of his death. In a heartfelt statement posted to social media, she wrote, "I'm heartbroken about the untimely death of my 'son', Matthew Perry. The loss of such a brilliant young actor is a shock. I'm sending love & condolences to his friends & family, especially his dad, John Bennett Perry, who I worked with on Flamingo Road & Falcon Crest. #RIPMatthew."
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