The last post Matthew Perry made from Instagram closed with the actor saying, "I'm Mattman," a phrase the lifelong Batman fanboy had used in the past.
But according to director Adam McKay, it wasn't just a play on words. It was also the title of a project Perry had pitched to McKay while filming 2021's Don't Look Up.
The Talladega Nights director revealed to The Hollywood Reporter why he cast Perry in the environmental comedy in a part that was eventually cut. "[We] were also hoping that doing the movie could be a little toehold to ... hopefully remind him how good he was," the filmmaker recalled.
When he met Perry, McKay explained, "He was great. He described how he had had some sort of major surgery ... and almost had died." McKay added, "He was back, and I was super excited to do the movie with him."
However, McKay said when Perry arrived on set, "His energy was low. He looked not healthy."
The filmmaker also explained Perry pitched him a project called Mattman and quoted the star as saying, "It's about this guy ... His name is Matt and he's very famous and about 50 years old. His life is a little bit of a mess. He's lost. Out of the blue a distant relative dies and leaves him $2 billion — and he uses [it] to become a superhero."
McKay said he tried to get Perry excited about a more autobiographical-style project instead, but Perry, who struggled with addiction for years, wasn't interested.
After Perry was wrapped on the film, he took a private plane to what turned out to be another stint in rehab.
"I actually didn't know that Switzerland was rehab," said McKay. "I thought it was like a health cleanse or something. Call me naive."