Matthew Perry asked his longtime assistant to administer ketamine three times the day he died — and his final words exemplified how much he relied on the drug.
According to court documents obtained by NBC News Thursday, Perry asked his longtime assistant Kenneth Iwamasa to “shoot me up with a big one” — meaning another dose of the dissociative anesthetic — shortly before he was found face down and unresponsive in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023.
The information was gathered after Iwamasa, 59, and four others were charged in connection to his death Thursday afternoon.
According to the documents, Perry, who died at age 54, asked Iwamasa to administer his first dose of ketamine at 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 28. He received his second dose about four hours later as he was watching a movie at his $5.2 million Los Angeles mansion.
He then asked Iwamasa to administer his third dose and to get his jacuzzi ready. After obeying his boss, Iwamasa left Perry’s home to run errands. He returned to find him deceased.
The beloved “Friends” star had previously opened up about using ketamine to treat his depression, but in the month leading up to his death, he was abusing the drug.
According to Iwamasa’s plea deal, he had been administering ketamine — which is used medically for anesthesia to help patients detach from their pain — to Perry for about a month.
Prosecutors say that Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, taught Iwamasa how to administer the drug after meeting Perry around the end of September 2023. He allegedly provided the actor with liquid ketamine and lozenges.
Though Perry was being treated with ketamine routinely by a doctor (his last official dose was administered two weeks before his death), he instructed his assistant to continue purchasing the drug from Plasencia and later a man named Erik Fleming, who were both charged.
Furthermore, Plascencia allegedly conspired with Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, to get more ketamine to Perry and make a quick buck from him.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” he allegedly texted Chavez.
Perry is believed to have paid the duo $55,000 in cash for ketamine in the weeks leading up to his death.
Plasencia was fully aware of Perry’s troublesome relationship with the anesthetic. Days before his death, he allegedly told another individual the “Fools Rush In” star was “spiraling out of control with his addiction.”
He also witnessed his body “freeze up and his blood pressure spike” on Oct. 12 when administering ketamine to the actor — fully aware he had just received a dose from his official doctor.
Perry struggled with substance abuse his entire adult life and spoke about his use of ketamine in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir.”
He described the drug as having his name “written” all over it and confirmed it helped him “disassociate” from life. He also said it made him feel like he was “dying.”
He added, “Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.”
In Nov. 2022, the “17 Again” actor said on the “Q with Tom Power” podcast that he wanted to be remembered as “somebody who lived well, loved well, [and] was a seeker.”
“And his paramount thing is that he wants to help people. That’s what I want.”
