Matthew Perry: No Friends Forever

Jennifer Aniston isn't the only member of Friends's coffee-guzzling sextet keeping alive the possibility of a 10th season. Matthew Perry tells TV Guide Online that although he and his fellow castmates are "emotionally preparing ourselves for the very weird, scary moment when this is all going to be over," he concedes that "we thought last year was going to be the last year, too, though, so you can never say never."

When the death knell is finally sounded — likely at the end of the show's upcoming ninth season — don't look to get your Chandler fix from a spinoff. "I feel like I've just been involved in maybe one of the greatest shows of all time, so I don't think I'm going to be too quick to head back into a risky situation, television-wise."

Instead, he'll be focusing on his film career, which — up to and including his latest effort Serving Sara (in theaters Aug. 23), co-starring Elizabeth Hurley — has solely consisted of romantic comedies with a Chandler-like protagonist. Perry argues that the down-and-out process server he plays in Sara is a step in a new direction, however.

"There certainly is a darker side of me that hasn't really been played out in movies or on television," he laments. "I don't think it's good to go from Chandler to Raging Bull within one movie — not that that's been offered to me — but you try to make a transition."

Perry might be trying for darker roles on-screen, but after spending 2001 in and out of rehab to kick a prescription-drug addiction, he's now hoping to emulate Chandler's newfound stability. "He's becoming much more of a man — that's happened with me as well," admits the first-time Emmy nominee, who expects his alter ego's growth spurt to continue in the fall. "I think some of the stories of this season are going to be about possibly having a kid. The sweater vests have been thrown away."

And as for the rumors that he's sliding back into self-destructive playboy mode? "If I go according to the tabloids this summer, I've gone off the wagon, I'm the father of Elizabeth Hurley's baby, I've dated 16 women I've never met, I'm married to Jennifer Capriati — and that's just in the last three months," he laughs. "At a certain point, you have to sit back and laugh because I know there's not enough time in the day for me to do all those things. Hopefully, the smart people realize that."