Matthew Perry’s love of Batman ran deep.
The actor, who died unexpectedly on Saturday at the age of 54, long felt a connection to the caped crusader. It was a through line to the very end of his life, as his final social media posts referenced the superhero and he playfully dubbed himself “Mattman.”
Like many others, his fandom began when he was a child. In the Friends star’s 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, in which he opened up about his long struggle with alcohol and drug addiction, Perry wrote about using the superhero to connect with his actor father.
“My dad was my hero. In fact, he was my superhero: whenever we would go for walks, I would say ‘you be Superman and I’ll be Batman,'” wrote Perry, whose parents, John Bennett Perry and Suzanne Morrison, split when he was young, leaving him going back and forth between the households, in Canada and Los Angeles.
His fandom grew from Christopher Nolan’s three Batman films, starring Christian Bale: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012), which were his all-time faves. Robert Pattinson’s The Batman joined the list when it came out in 2022.
The idea of Batman rising again was one Perry related to on his addiction journey. As detailed in his book, he started drinking alcohol every day at age 18. His opioid abuse began in 1997 after a 1997 Jet Ski accident. He estimated that he spent $9 million on addiction treatments in his lifetime, including 15 stints in rehab and 65 detoxes.
After surviving his colon rupturing in 2019 due to the opioid abuse, defying what doctors said was a “2% chance to live,” Perry left the hospital after a five-month stay. “I am Batman,” he wrote in his book about not just surviving, but finding light in the darkness of that ordeal. The book’s final chapter — about feeling hopeful after all he had gone through — was titled “Batman.” The final words he wrote in it were, “And when whatever happens, just think, What would Batman do? and do that.”
In a GQ interview last year, he explained what he meant by “I am Batman,” saying, “Well, he’s a rich loner. We both drive black, cool cars. “I don’t solve crime, but I’ve saved people’s lives.”
The saving came through sharing struggles in his book to make other addicts not feel alone. For years before that, the actor who played Chandler Bing stepped up as a sponsor for countless other addicts, imparting his wisdom, taking their calls at all hours. He even briefly operated his own sober-living facility for men, Perry House. At the time of his death, he was in the process of starting a foundation to help those with addiction issues.
Hank Azaria, one of Perry’s close friends, shared on Instagram that Perry helped him get sober 17 years ago, taking him to AA for the first time. Perry estimated attending 6,000 AA meetings in his lifetime.
While saving people’s lives was a big part of the Batman connection, Perry was also just a superfan. Around 2012 or 2013, he built his first Batman room in his home.
During Bale’s era, “I really got into that,” Perry admitted on Jimmy Kimmel Live in 2016. “And I’m an insomniac, so in the m iddle of the night, I just go on eBay and buy all this Batman stuff… But, I want to point out, it’s not dorky. It’s actually a cool Batman room.”
In 2017, he spent $20 million for a 10,000-square-foot condo in L.A.’s Century City that he made over to resemble the one Christian Bale’s Batman had in The Dark Knight. “Bruce Wayne had a penthouse — I’m going to have one,” he told GQ of his thought process.
Back on Kimmel in that year, he talked about his “Batcave” and the latest additions to his memorabilia collection. He said that he mostly received Batman gifts at that point.
He also showed off some of his favorite Batman things in a video interview with GQ. He had statues, action figures, watches, sweatpants and even selected his cars for their Batmobile-type qualities.
However, in his book, he wrote about the penthouse being a dark hole and detriment to his sobriety because he was “doing drugs and watching TV.” He told GQ he realized it was “a stupid mistake” and sold it — to Rihanna. The listing showed his screening room with Batman cued up. There were also shelves of Batman stuff.
The sale was also timed to the end of his engagement to Molly Hurwitz, who moved out with their dog Alfred. (Perry also jokingly referred to his assistant as “Alfred,” the name of Batman’s butler, in his book.)
Perry ended up downsizing to a home in Pacific Palisades, which is where he died. He did renovations on it prior to moving and told GQ that there would be a dedicated Batman room in the house, which he dubbed “a Matt cave.” He said it would have a pool table, TV, black couch and shelves of his Batman memorabilia.
As for what he’d do in his Matt cave, ”You watch TV, you watch the Batman movies. You play the Batman video game. There’s a lot to do,” he said.
Perry was on and off with social media, but a week before his death he shared a flurry of posts from his new home, having only recently moved in, including some of the Batman touches. In one video, there was a room with three different screens showing The Batman. On the ceiling was the bat symbol.
He also had a light on his pool.
A sign that said “Batman plays pickleball,” which he had taken up — and was playing shortly before he was found dead.
His Batman pumpkin.
In his final two posts, he wrote, “I’m Mattman.”
A source told People magazine, Perry was “incredibly happy” in his final days in his new home, and his Mattman posts stemmed from an idea the actor had been working on for a series.
“He was having fun,” said the source.
The magazine’s editor, Wendy Naugle, said on Today, “He was writing a little script, that’s where the ‘Mattman’ reference comes from in his Instagram.” He had also just signed on to act in a new drama film, Unworthy, which was on hold due to the strike.
Since his death, some of the social media tributes to him have also been a nod to his love of Batman, including one from his former assistant Briana Brancato that ended with, “I hope that up there, in the great beyond, Mattman is sending us signs. We truly need them. You’ll forever be in my heart.”
