Elizabeth Hurley remembers how difficult it was to work with Matthew Perry as he battled drug and alcohol abuse.
The actress recently recounted her experience working with the Friends star on the 2002 romantic comedy Serving Sara, which he revealed in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing had to suspend production while he was in rehab for drug and alcohol abuse.
"To be honest, it was a nightmare working with him at that time and, as it's now known, our movie was shut down because of his addiction," Hurley told Yahoo! Entertainment in comments posted Nov. 9. "We were in a force majeure and had to all sit at home twiddling our thumbs for some time."
While in his book, Perry wrote that both Hurley and the film's director Reginald Hudlin were "pissed off" by the situation. Hurley told Yahoo! Entertainment, "That was a little tough, but he came back and he was fabulous."
Perry wrote in his book that while he tried to "make real amends" for his earlier behavior by re-recording lines he previously "slurred" and committing to doing a lot of press to promote the film, it "tanked anyway."
Perry noted that he was paid $3.5 million for the film and "got sued" for the shutdown, sharing that "at the mediation table a team of insurance flacks faced me down, so I just wrote them a check for $650,000."
Despite Perry's personal struggles affecting the production of Serving Sara, Hurley noted that she has "very fond memories of him."
She added, "It was tough, obviously he was having a tough time, but he was still very charming and a lovely person to work with. But you could see he was suffering for sure."