What is it about these entertainment awards in the Western world that seems to suffer from selective amnesia not just when it comes to awarding deserving artists but also remembering them after they are dead? Doesn’t take much to say a little prayer for their departed souls, does it? Remember when, in 2022, both the Oscars and the Grammy Awards forgot — or chose to leave out, whatever be their politics — the ‘Nightingale of India’ Lata Mangeshkar and ‘India’s Disco King’ Bappi Lahiri, both of whom had passed away earlier that February within a week’s time? It left India raging, but of course. On Sunday evening, the British, at the British Film and Television Academy Awards (BAFTA), forgot to remember the American-Canadian actor Mathew Perry who shone in that iconic British department: wry sarcasm.
Agreed, Perry’s Chandler Bing (from that ’90s show F.R.I.E.N.D.S.) may not hold a candle to Jeeves and Wooster, but he was a funny Everyman for the Millennials, and taught the Americans — and the rest of the world in the ’90s, thanks to satellite television — to laugh at themselves. And while Perry was far exceptional as Mike Kresteva in the drama series The Good Wife (2009), Chandler Bing was “not a blah, he’s a hoot!”
It’s not that the BAFTA has left out paying homage to a dead artist in its ‘In Memoriam’ segment for the first time, but what drove fans — perhaps, almost every Millennial alive at present — up the wall raging was the snub of an immensely popular television actor who has helped many of us, inching towards the middle ages, survive the avalanches life threw our way with a dollop of Bing’s hallmark deadpan humour as self-preservation tools. Perry, who wrote his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing (2022), died at his Los Angeles residence on October 28, 2023, after he was found in an unresponsive state in a hot tub. Perry’s cause of death was later determined to be owing to acute effects of ketamine and other contributing factors.
ALSO READ: Why Matthew Perry’s awkward Chandler Bing was relatable
Though earlier this year, Perry was remembered at the American TV awards, the Emmys, in their ‘In Memoriam’ segment during the Emmy Awards held in January, with his photograph shown even as Charlie Puth performed his 2015 song See You Again, that transitioned into the Friends theme song, I’ll Be There For You.
While the American-Canadian actor was left out, two other Americans weren’t: Singer Tina Turner and actor-director Carl Weathers, alongside the Irish actor Michael Gambon and British actor-singer Jane Birkin in its ‘In Memoriam’ segment. And only after Perry’s fans stirred up the hornet’s nest on X (formerly Twitter), did the BAFTA respond by announcing it will honour Matthew Perry at its TV Awards to be held in May. Sounds about right, I guess, considering Perry’s sitcoms (Friends, Go On; Mr Sunshine; Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) garnered his unparalleled fan base, and even overshadowed some of his notable roles in cinema. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian observed Perry to be that tremendous performer who could have but didn’t develop as a great character actor and writer in the movies. If Robert Downey Jr, with a legendary drug history, could become a huge superhero name and, this year, win the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Perry could have stood a chance in a parallel universe. At the very least, he deserves to be remembered at ‘In Memoriam’ segments of every global film and television awards this year — and not as an afterthought.
Perry ain't alone. In January, actress Kate Beckinsale expressed her frustration online after learning BAFTA couldn’t guarantee if her stepfather, director Roy Battersby, would be included in the In Memoriam segment at the awards ceremony following his death. The academy subsequently assured that Roy will be honoured during their upcoming television awards.
The BAFTA snub for Greta Gerwig's blockbuster Barbie also left fans unhappy. Barbie actress Margot Robbie lost out the BAFTA for Leading Actress to Emma Stone for her performance in Poor Things. If Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer swept seven awards, Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things took home five awards. Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon lost all nine of its nominations while Maestro was snubbed too despite seven nominations.
All eyes on the Oscars now!
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