The One Video Game Character Matthew Perry Voiced After Friends
Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, "Friends" stood as the pinnacle of situation comedies. Following the wacky escapades of a group of quirky 20-somethings, the series quickly became one of the most popular and successful sitcoms of all time. In 2009, TV Guide even named the show one of the Top 50 TV Shows of All Time. More recently, the original cast of the show was brought back for a reunion special, which aired on May 27, 2021.
One of the legendary cast members who appeared on the reunion is Matthew Perry, who is still best known for playing the character Chandler Bing across the entire 10-season run of "Friends." However, in addition to his run on the show, Perry played a role in another extremely popular piece of media. Six years after "Friends" came to an end, he voiced a character in an installment of a long-running video game franchise.
Perry voiced Benny in Fallout: New Vegas
After "Friends," Perry joined the voice cast of the 2010 RPG video game "Fallout: New Vegas," which was developed by Obsidian Entertainment and published by Bethesda Softworks (via IMDb). He voiced Benny, the first character that players meet at the start of the game.
The "Fallout" universe is pretty complex, and "New Vegas" isn't the series' first entry, so some context may be important for this one. In the 2070s, Earth's culture remained somewhat fixed in the Cold War. Technology had advanced, but music, aesthetics, and everything else never developed past the mid-'60s, until nuclear war broke out between Communist China and America. Fast forward a few centuries, and people managed to survive radioactive death via underground bunkers called Vaults. Meanwhile, the affluent kingpin of Las Vegas, Mr. House, mostly protects the city from nuclear warheads by using his advanced anti-missile technology.
In "Fallout: New Vegas," you play as a lone courier delivering a mysterious Platinum Poker Chip to the still bustling "New Vegas." On your way, however, you are captured by a stranger who takes the chip and pays you back with a bullet to the head. Luckily, you survive and swear to exact revenge on the fella who wronged you.
Of course, this man was none other than Benny, the slick-talking, checkered-suit-sporting wise guy on Mr. House's dime. With Perry expertly providing his voice, Benny is exactly the kind of sleazeball who can make it in the seedy underground of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. That is, until you roll up with your favorite toys to make him at least slightly more dead than he made you — if you so choose.