The Friends Scene Matthew Perry Straight Up Refused To Film
In the wake of the untimely and tragic death of Matthew Perry, many people are sharing their favorite memories and moments from his performance as Chandler Bing in the long-running, beloved sitcom "Friends." Over the course of 10 seasons and 236 episodes that people have watched and rewatched and rewatched ad infinitum, there is so much material to choose from — whether it's the sly, sarcastic one-liners Perry would throw out to fill a space of uncomfortable silence, or the large-scale physical gags that he was equally adept at. Of course, there are also the tender moments that people remember from his relationship with Courteney Cox's Monica.
There is one particular element of Chandler's character you will not see people reminiscing about. Whenever a show lasts as long as "Friends" did, there will inevitably be storylines from the show that the audience doesn't like, and there will be just as many — if not more — that the actors themselves weren't crazy about. In the case of Matthew Perry, one season 7 B-plot for Chandler was so mystifying and problematic to the actor that he asked to have it removed entirely from an episode, never to heard from again.
Not only was it a smart decision on Perry's part, as he could see that was not in-keeping with the neurotic Chandler Bing's persona, it also helped the show avoid a subject that the series never did deal with in a particularly sensitive way — and, in many cases, was outright boneheaded about. And it all starts with a male strip club.
Strip clubs and sandwiches
Chandler Bing barely appears in the 18th episode of "Friends" season 7, entitled "The One with Joey's Award." He doesn't show up until the final third of the episode, where he and Monica discuss the perceived fears about knowing that they will be the spending the rest of their lives together. There's really no story beats for him to play out in the episode. However, that was not the case when "The One with Joey's Award" was first written. As spotted by a "Friends" fan on Reddit, the episode synopsis on Netflix describes a non-existent B-plot in which Ross spots Chandler leaving a male strip club.
Perry revealed the reason for this on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" back in 2017 that there was a "Chandler" story he rejected and the writers agreed to get rid of. They had an idea that Chandler would be a patron of a male strip club for the simple fact that he loves the sandwiches they serve there. You can understand the comedic game behind this setup because, as you would expect, food is not the primary reason to go to an establishment where men take their clothes off. Plus, Chandler is a heterosexual man. Why would he be in there?
The actor did not give specifics as to why he was not a fan of the idea, just that he didn't want to do it. One would like to believe he understood that it would make no sense for the anxiety-ridden, quite homophobic Chandler to make his way into a male strip club, let alone and stay to try out the sandwiches. However, it also would not be surprising if this massively famous person on a blockbuster sitcom wasn't crazy about wading in murky sexuality waters that the early 2000s were not kind to in the slightest. It was probably a mixture of both.
Already enough gay panic
The 1990s and early '00s were a boon time for gay panic jokes, and "Friends" indulged in mining them quite a bit. After all, the show featured a couple of heterosexual, cisgender, neurotic white men in New York City, a rare place where people are more comfortable to live a little more freely than they could in most of the United States. For a show so focused on the romantic lives of its main characters, the heterosexuality of someone like Chandler Bing was tied to his perceived manliness, which is sadly a problem still prevalent today.
Four episodes after the proposed male strip club story, there was "The One with Chandler's Dad." In this episode, we learn that the title is slightly incorrect, as his parent is actually a transgender woman (played by Kathleen Turner) and works as a drag performer under the name "Helena Handbasket." While he does begrudgingly invite her to his and Monica's wedding, there is still quite a lot of resentment and anger directed towards her, and of course, the show doesn't really understand that the character is transgender.
It would not be surprising if Matthew Perry knew this story beat was coming in the near future and thought the writers were relying too much on juxtaposing the nervy Chandler with queer culture for cheap laughs. It's as if the writers wanted to pack all of this stuff in before the season's finale "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding," after which they might not feel as comfortable putting Chandler in these situations. The strip club story never came back, and that was probably a good decision. While its use may not be offensive exactly, it is a rather lazy trope.