Matthew Perry apologizes for questioning why Keanu Reeves ‘still walks among us’

There was backlash after outlets shared an excerpt from his forthcoming memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing” in which Perry talks about the 1993 death of his friend actor River Phoenix and references another actor, Keanu Reeves.

“River was a beautiful man, inside and out — too beautiful for this world, it turned out. It always seems to be the really talented guys who go down,” Perry wrote. “Why is it that the original thinkers like River Phoenix and Heath Ledger die, but Keanu Reeves still walks among us?”

Perry is now apologizing.

“I’m actually a big fan of Keanu. I just chose a random name, my mistake,” he said in a statement to People. ” I apologize. I should have used my own name instead.”

CNN has reached out to Perry and Reeves for comment.