Matthew Perry had been looking forward to filming scenes opposite acting legend Meryl Streep in the Netflix movie "Don't Look Up" in 2020, but instead he found himself in a much more harrowing place.

The "Friends" star recounted on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" on Nov. 1 how he nearly died while enduring his latest treatment for a decades-long addiction issue.

"I got CPR, and the guy who saved my life broke eight ribs in the process," Perry said.

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Perry, 53, wrote in his new book, "Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing," that he was in a rehab facility in Switzerland at the time and stayed up all night taking hydrocodone before a surgery in which he was administered another drug, according to Rolling Stone.

Perry told Colbert he had been treated with propofol, which is the powerful drug that killed Michael Jackson in 2009 and is usually used for anesthesia.

"And my heart stopped for five minutes," he said.

Colbert asked him if that meant he had been legally dead for five minutes.

"No, I didn't flatline, but my heart did stop for five minutes," Perry said.

Colbert asked what the difference is between flatlining and having his heart stop.

"I don't know," Perry said. "They both seem bad."

Perry told Colbert he woke up in a different hospital 10 hours later. The pain from the incident meant he would not be able to perform with Streep in "Don't Look Up," which was released last year and earned four Oscar nominations, including one for best picture.

"I had to give up the biggest movie I've ever gotten," Perry said. "I had four scenes with Streep."

He then joked that Streep was wondering aloud on the set about Perry's whereabouts.

That medical emergency was one of two near-death experiences Perry writes about in his book.

He also was fighting for his life after his colon exploded from complications of his opioid abuse. It left him in a coma for two weeks, according to People.

Perry also spoke with Colbert about the highly anticipated "Friends" reunion on HBO Max in 2021. He said that two days before the filming, he had a "dental emergency" in which he had three bone spurs in his mouth removed.

"In this one case I thank the paparazzi because they caught pictures of me going into the dentist two days before the reunion," he said. "And I knew that there was something off with me because my mouth was on fire, but I also knew that I had to show up at this reunion. (There were) so many people (involved) where I can't move it, I can't change it, so I basically went and did the best that I could. But I was on like six cylinders, not eight."

Perry spoke to People last month about how "Friends" helped save his life, and wrote in his book about how he was taken to rehab on the day he filmed the famous scene where Chandler married Monica.

He also shared in his book that he shot the final scene of "Friends" while on opioids, and told GQ he doesn't think his co-stars will read his memoir.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

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