Liz Hetzel

I was hired to be a Warner Brothers Studio tour guide in the summer of 2003. After a few surprising months, I found myself the assistant to the tour director. Along with the job came an electric cart all to myself. Around September, the Friends cast had come back for their final season and along with some new rules. Like, when the Friends cast would drive off the lot, they would stop all traffic. My guess was that they were protecting the cast from being followed home, but it also could have been that the highest paid actors on tv just didn’t want to be in traffic. Who knows.

One day, the radio hanging on my belt loop screamed that traffic was being stopped. I was just outside the Friends studio and didn’t have time to stop. I figured if I just hurried, I could sneak around quickly and no one would notice. Just as I got to the small opening between the Friends studio and Two and a Half Men studio, a Porsche surprised me by pulling out right next to me. I slammed on my brake, barely missing the front fender.

When I looked up, it was Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing from Friends. I figure, he was going to find out who I was and I would be fired by the next day. My only choice was to have fun with it. I leaned forward into my steering wheel inviting him to race me. After a second of consideration, he revved his engine. We were on!

I slammed down the excelerator (which, of course, is hilarious because I can only go about 5mph) and he hit the gas. He had to drive on the street, but I had the advantage of driving up on sidewalks, etc. We were watching each other’s progress as we zig zagged through the backlot. We arrived at the WB water tower at exactly the same time and we laughed. He slowed down to drive next to me for a bit and as I pulled off to go to my office, he waved like we had always been friends.

Matthew Perry passed away too early. I’m sad that he never seemed to really find happiness. I will always think of him fondly as the guy who raced a stranger on a electric cart, just for a moment of fun.