Matthew Perry to Remove Keanu Reeves Insult from Future Editions of Memoir: ‘I Said a Stupid Thing’

Matthew Perry is continuing to make amends for the shot he took at Keanu Reeves.

The “Friends” star attracted controversy last year when he mentioned Reeves while paying tribute to the late River Phoenix in a passage of his memoir “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”

“River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out,” Perry wrote in the book. “It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down. Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us? River was a better actor than me; I was funnier. But I certainly held my own in our scenes — no small feat, when I look back decades later.”

Reeves’ persona as one of the nicest actors in Hollywood — and the friendship that he forged with Phoenix while filming “My Own Private Idaho” — prompted many fans to claim the passage was in poor taste. Perry eventually agreed with the sentiment and publicly apologized to Reeves.

“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu,” Perry said in a statement shortly after the book was released. “I just chose a random name, my mistake. I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”

Now, he’s taking things a step further. Appearing at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on Saturday (via Variety), Perry pledged to remove Reeves’ name from future editions of his memoir.

“I said a stupid thing. It was a mean thing to do,” Perry said. “I pulled his name because I live on the same street. I’ve apologized publicly to him. Any future versions of the book will not have his name in it.”

Perry added that despite living on the same street as Reeves, he has not had a chance to apologize to the “John Wick” star in person. But the actor said he has no objections to doing so and plans to apologize if they meet face-to-face.

“If I run into the guy, I’ll apologize,” he said. “It was just stupid.”