ALEXANDRA_WILSON ARNOLD_SCHWARZENEGGER BARBARA_FISHER CHARACTER CHARLES_ROSIN CHRIS_BARISH CHUCK_ROSIN DAVID_SHEINKOPF DEAN_WINTERS DIANNE_YOUNG FEMALE_FAN FEMALE_NEWSCASTER GABRIEL_CORREA GEORGE GOODNIGHT_FOR_JUSTICE_ACTOR HODA_KOTB INTERVIEWER JACKIE_NESPRAL
JAMES_DEAN JASON_PRIESTLEY JOAN_LUNDEN JOHN_MCNAUGHTON KRISTY_SWANSON LEONARDO_DICAPRIO LUKE_PERRY MARGARET_WAPPLER MARIA_SHRIVER MARISOL_NICHOLS MARLON_BRANDO MICHAEL_SCOTT
NEWS_REPORTER OHIO PETER_FERRIERO PRISONER SANTINA_MUHA SHANNEN_DOHERTY STEPHEN_BALDWIN STEVEN
STORE_OWNER TEEN_GIRL  TIMOTHY_OLYPHANT TOM_FONTANA JASON PRIESTLEY

When 90210 hit, it was a life-changing event.
But anytime you're a teen heartthrob.
Everyone just assumes that you can't be that good of an actor, and you're just a good-looking kid.
NEWS REPORTER
Look familiar? Teenage frenzy as old as your Elvis records, but this is 1992, and these girls are here to see Luke Perry.
JASON PRIESTLEY
But I think Luke understood the importance of letting the world know that he was more than just this Dylan McKay character that all the teenage girls had posters of up in their bedroom.
NEWS REPORTER
Luke Perry has signed a lot of autographs lately thanks to Beverly Hills, 90210. About a year ago, the teen drama turned this little-known actor into Hollywood's latest idol.
KRISTY SWANSON
There was a time when I was in my trailer, and I heard a bunch of screaming, like, high squeals. Like 
TEEN GIRL
There's Luke Perry! There's Luke Perry, oh my god!
KRISTY SWANSON
They were screaming like The Beatles were there, you know what I mean? It was just  It was wild.
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
I think Luke had tons of celebrity problems. I don't have those problems.
NEWS REPORTER
This is a moment more than 7,000 teenagers waited for, but the excitement was uncontrollable.
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
You catch yourself wanting those problems, you know, but you don't want those problems.
DEAN WINTERS
At the time, Brad Pitt and DiCaprio were coming up, but they weren't  they weren't Luke Perry, do you know what I mean? I mean, he was probably the biggest actor on the planet.
MARISOL NICHOLS
Luke was iconic. He really was, I mean, he was "Luke Perry."
MARISOL NICHOLS
With his amount of fame, you could phone it in, but Luke never phoned it in, ever.
LUKE PERRY
I always thought that I would succeed somehow, but you don't. Well, you don't think it's going to be like this. I mean, I certainly didn't think it was gonna be like this.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
Certain actors, when they get that stigma of "handsome" and "good looks", they'll go and do performances to get around that, prove themselves, but more importantly, satisfy their own artistic motivations, so that's my favorite part of knowing Luke, and having been friends with him, was that he was that "real deal" as an actor.
DEAN WINTERS
As an actor, I learned from Luke. I was doing a show called Oz, and Luke was the character Jeremiah Cloutier, and I remember he was a pro at stillness, and film and television acting is about being still.
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
My experience working with Luke was he didn't seem like a huge celebrity. He just seemed like a working actor, and I mean that in the best way.
LUKE PERRY
If I'm the flash-in-the-pan, or all that everyone tells you you're gonna be, maybe so, but I'll go down fighting.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Luke had a lot of creative drive inside him, and he wanted to do more. He wanted to do more.
OHIO
MARGARET WAPPLER
Luke was raised by his mom and his stepfather in Fredericktown, Ohio, and it's just this little farming town. It's only about 2,500 people.
Author of A Good Bad Boy
LUKE PERRY
I didn't see my first Porsche until I got to California, so, uh, you know, I wasn't brought up wealthy. I was brought up well.
MARGARET WAPPLER
From a young age, he just, he loved watching TV with his mom, particularly soap operas that was her favorite and then after school, he'd come home, he'd watch TV Westerns, and he was completely fascinated by the performers.
MARLON BRANDO
That's right, Lon. Now, up in here right quick.
MARGARET WAPPLER
By the time he was in high school, he knew he wanted to become an actor. The dream it was just completely formed in his mind, and he would tell, like, you know, anyone who would listen. The problem was Fredericktown, he just wasn't gonna get far with that dream there, so when he turned 18, he picked up, he moved to New York, and he began the grind of auditioning.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
I was in New York, and I was going out for a movie called Young Guns, and I met this guy in the casting office, and it was just it was just me and him, and he had on, like, this this, like, kinda cowboyish hat, and, uh, it was Luke. We kind of, like, traded a couple of stories, and neither of us got the role, and, you know, we were just, like, "Hey, you know, we'll hang out." I booked a job for a show called Another World. They would pick everybody up in a stretch limo, and I opened the door, and Luke is sitting there (laughing) and it was, like, it was perfect.
LUKE PERRY
Originally, the goal was to see myself on a television set, because I didn't know if it could be done. Um, so then I saw that, and then I fell in love with acting somewhere along the way.
I think you're blaming your mother for your problems.
ALEXANDRA WILSON
She is my problem.
LUKE PERRY
Is she?
ALEXANDRA WILSON
Yes.
LUKE PERRY
Or is it Matt?
DAVID SHEINKOPF
And his mom absolutely loved soaps, and she was so proud of him. From then on, we just  we became friends, and, um, it was a friendship that lasted for decades.
MARGARET WAPPLER
He did two soap operas, Loving, and Another World, and after that, he decides to go to L.A. for pilot season for 1990.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Back in the old days, when we actually had a pilot season, it was like going to acting bootcamp for a month, and actors would fly in from all over the country, and we'd all stay at the Oakwood Gardens on Barham Avenue, so there'd be, like, a million young actors in there, and then, like, you know, 50 freshly divorced Dads. 
JASON PRIESTLEY
Like, it was really, uh, it was hilarious. If you were a fresh piece of meat in town, that nobody had seen, it was, like, five auditions a day, and then you'd come home at the end of the night, and there'd be another stack of scripts, and so you'd be in there reading, you know, all the scripts every night, and preparing for the next day, and then, so you'd go out, and do four or five more auditions, and it was like that for weeks, after weeks, after weeks.
LUKE PERRY
That part of it is business. Um, the actual performing and the creating of a character, that's pleasure, but the going through the political process of getting a job, that's business.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
I was on a show in California for a few months, and Luke called me. He said, "I'm gonna come out to LA." He's, like, "Can I crash on your couch?" and I said, "My couch is yours," and then, uh, he got a place over at the Arquettes. The Arquettes had a spare room or something, and Luke's, like, "Hey, man, I found this place. Do you wanna rent it with me?" and I was, like, "Absolutely," and that's kinda how Mansfield began. Man crazy. The old  the old palace. So this was this was my room, and then right through that door is the bathroom. You can see that little window. That little minute of light, and then you make a quick left, and that was Luke's room. He wanted the back room. He's, like, "Dude, you can have the bigger room. I just want the back room." I'm, like, "Cool." Uh, while we lived here, he was working in Diamond Bar, and he was doing he was doing random stuff, 'cause that's what he knew. Like, he knew how to do construction, and he won the coin flip, so he got the garage, and then, you know, this whole backyard, it was, you know and we used to have parties out here, so it was kind of a cool spot, you know?
MARIA SHRIVER
How long have you lived here?
LUKE PERRY
A little over a year.
MARIA SHRIVER
When Perry left New York, he ended up here, in this rented two-bedroom house in Hollywood. Not exactly the kind of place you'd find on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
LUKE PERRY
Wipe your feet. Ha, ha.
MARIA SHRIVER
Yeah, ha, ha. Who decorated this house, first of all?
LUKE PERRY
I decorated this house.
MARIA SHRIVER
You did?
LUKE PERRY
Well, I didn't really decorate it, but my stuff is in here.
MARIA SHRIVER
This room, I can't go in, because it's  Not because it's your bedroom, but because you've got your pig in there, and you won't let the pig go on camera.
LUKE PERRY
Exactly.
MARIA SHRIVER
You're very protective of your pig.
LUKE PERRY
I certainly am.
MARIA SHRIVER
Now, why won't you let your pig go on camera?
LUKE PERRY
It�s not It's not so much my choice. I give him the option.
MARIA SHRIVER
It's the pig's choice?
LUKE PERRY
Exactly. I've given him the option numerous times to appear on, you know, talk shows, magazines. He declines. I'm not gonna push it.
MARIA SHRIVER
And you've asked him about appearing on this show?
LUKE PERRY
He's got a big thing for you. The pig is crazy about you, but, you know.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
He was always tinkering with something, you know? He always had his hands busy. He loved to do things. We had these old leaf hinges on the  in the kitchen, and he ripped them all down, and he, like, was dipping these old hinges into, you know, um, paint thinner. I'm, like, "What are you doing?" He's, like, "They're copper," and I said, "Oh," and then he painted the kitchen grey, and he did black linoleum on the floor, and, you know, he, like, made it home, because that's what he did, you know? Home was where he made it.
LUKE PERRY
I never really felt completely the place where I lived was where I should be. I always felt  I never felt like I was running away from something, but I did always feel that I was running to something.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
I give actors much props, because it's a hard life. You take rejection for a living. For Luke, I don't think "not making it" was an option for him. I think he took it on the chin pretty well, you know? I mean, I think that, you know, going on as many auditions as he did, and not getting them, it just drove him to do more, you know? You were in it to win it. Last man standing.
DIANNE YOUNG
I was casting the television version of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and Luke came in. 
I looked at him and I thought, "You are so not what I'm looking for, for this," and he goes, "I know, I know," he just and he said, "But I know who you are, and I wanted to meet you, and if we could." and I said, "That's fine, you know, come in, have a seat," and we sat and we chatted for quite a while about things, and what he wanted to do, and he was very sweet, and I just thought. Sometimes, you get a feeling, and I just thought, "Hmm. I have to remember this guy."
INTERVIEWER
219 auditions. I am in awe that you held on and were willing to do it. Where does it come from?
LUKE PERRY
Well, in all fairness, it was 216, and it A fear of failure, I guess, you know? It's easy to you hear "No" a lot, but it only means no if you believe it.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
Everybody auditioned for that role of his, everybody, like, you know, they were looking far and wide for that role.
DIANNE YOUNG
I came in knowing that they were adding a character to 90210, but he was the bad boy. Chuck told me about the character. The more he talked, the more I thought, "Oh I know who this should be." When the reading was over, I just kind of waited, and Chuck turned to me and said, "That's the guy."
CHARLES ROSIN
He was perfect. There wasn't anything more that you could say to Luke at that point, of how to play the He understood it. There was something raw inside that he just intuitively got, and Mr. Spelling certainly saw that at the time that we were doing the audition. When we did the audition for the Fox Broadcasting company, however, Luke was nervous, and it didn't happen in the way that we had all hoped it would play. The network didn't understand why we were asking for more money to put this character in, and they weren't gonna go there, and Mr. Spelling, who often doesn't volunteer his own wallet for things, said, "I'll pay for him," and so, the special bond that Luke Perry had with Aaron Spelling was formed in that moment.
JASON PRIESTLEY
So, Luke and I met for the first time chuck Rosin decided to have a table reading for the first episode, and after the table reading, Luke and I
JASON PRIESTLEY
Hey.were outside on the porch in front of Chuck's house
JASON PRIESTLEY
My name's, uh, Brandon Walsh.
LUKE PERRY
Brandon Walsh Scotch or Irish?
JASON PRIESTLEY
Both, actually, by way of Minnesota.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Especially in that first episode, it was all about Dylan McKay, the surfing guy, and the surfer, and so, I said to him, I said, "Do you surf, dude?" and he said, "Never surfed a day in my life." I said, "We're gonna get along just fine," and, uh, you know, we were just thick as thieves after that.
CHUCK ROSIN
Why was surf culture important to bring into Dylan's character in 90210? I thought it really connected to the spiritual side of Dylan, and I thought Luke just carried that, and really picked that up. Surf culture had to be part of the beach culture. If you're talking Beverly Hills This is before we even created anything called the "Beverly Hills Beach Club", but if you talk about what California has to offer, it's not its cosmopolitan architecture, and even though we do have a lot of really smart people here, it isn't even our institutional, or academic, um, connections, it's our physical beauty. Our proximity to the desert, the mountains, and the sea. I don't know shit about the desert or the mountains, but I know about the ocean.
JASON PRIESTLEY
So, Luke didn't join the cast of 90210 until the first episode. He was not in the pilot. Aaron wanted to add a hunk, but a guy that was more than just a hunk. Like, a guy who was  a guy who was complicated. Dylan McKay pretended to be a tough guy, but was also super sensitive, and would get his feelings hurt, and he was  and he was really trying to, like, sort out what it was to be a a responsible human, because he wasn't raised by a responsible human. Luke was the perfect guy for that. He could play it really cool, but then he was also not afraid to make really bold choices.
LUKE PERRY
I'm an idiot! Please don't leave.
SHANNEN DOHERTY
You're scaring me!
LUKE PERRY
I'm sorry.
SHANNEN DOHERTY
Dylan, what happened?
LUKE PERRY
My dad, he just gets to me. He always gets to me. I don't know what I'm supposed to Oh!
CHUCK ROSIN
We had finished our first season, and I had a call with the network. Barry Diller, a very particular man, started the meeting by saying, yes, 90210 is working but, uh, does it belong on "our air"? As if Because Fox, you know, had attitude, and did we have enough attitude?
MARGARET WAPPLER
So, when the show first starts, you know, it's a non-union production. Nobody really cares about it. Like, it's just happening and, you know, maybe it'll land, maybe it won't.
CHUCK ROSIN
Fox was a fledgling network at that point, and Mr. Murdoch, with the Fox Broadcasting Service, had just bought the satellite in China, and so, he needed to put his money there, and they didn't  Fox Broadcasting really just didn't have enough to make a TV show right at that moment to replace us, and then what happens is the Gulf War breaks out.
GEORGE H. W. BUSH
We do not need another Hitler.
CHUCK ROSIN
The networks immediately suspend all their commercial activity to cover the war. Fox, and this is hard to believe, did not have a news department, and so, they had no choice but just to run what they had.
LUKE PERRY
So, did we get Daddy's permission?
JASON PRIESTLEY
Nope, we got Mom's.On our Christmas break, I said to Luke and Ian, I said, "Guys, let's go to Zermatt. Let's go skiing." So we all book our tickets, and we're all gonna go, and then Luke, all of a sudden, isn't gonna come because something's come up, and he's not gonna be able to make it, so Ian and I travel all the way to Zurich, and we were getting on the train to go to Zermatt, and all of a sudden, Luke's there, and we're like, "Dude! We thought you couldn't make it?" He was, like, "All right. No, right, right, I had to, man, I had to come..." you know, and this was very Luke." All he had was his ski bag, and he had taken all of his clothes, and stuffed them in his ski bag, so everything he wore, the whole trip, was wrinkled. It was pretty funny. So, anyway, we go to Zermatt, and we're skiing, and we're, you know, we're going out at night to the Post Hotel, and we could tell that there were a few people knew who we were, but sometimes nobody knew who we were, but we got bothered enough that I think we all knew that that shit was about to change.It was a big shock to all of us.But shopping malls just became a place that we couldn't go to for 10 years. It was crazy.
NEWS REPORTER
Each Thursday night, millions of teens hang up their phones to watch the latest exploits of the coolest, richest, and most gorgeous high school clique this side of Rodeo Drive.
MARGARET WAPPLER
It's not like anything else, you know? It's appealing to a teenage audience, which barely anybody in TV was really thinking about.
TIMOTHY OLIPHANT
It was a huge show. Even if you didn't watch it, you know everybody.
LUKE PERRY
The first few times that we went out, you know, to meet the public, and to do appearances, um, and then we saw the response that we got. It was pretty  It was amazing, it really was. I mean, you just  you forget how many millions of people are watching.
KRISTY SWANSON
They found his trailer. They were screaming like The Beatles were there, you know what I mean?
STORE OWNER 
Well, the most popular thing is the pillow, 'cause they get to sleep with them.
DAVID SHEINKOPF
In the '90s, everybody knew Luke Perry. He became a household name.
FEMALE NEWSCASTER
Perry says a girl came up to him recently and asked for his gum. He produced a new stick, offered it to her, and she turned it down. She wanted the piece he was chewing.
MARISOL NICHOLS
Luke was iconic, he really was. I mean, he was "Luke Perry". It didn't get any bigger than that.
JOAN LUNDEN
You didn't know that girls were going to sleep at night with their little heads against your face, saying, "Oh, Luke!"
LUKE PERRY
I heard about 'em, but.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
You could see women get distracted by it. That's the thing is, Luke was that kind of energy and look, where you could see a married woman with her husband going, "Oh!"
NEWS REPORTER
This is the moment more than 7,000 South Florida teenagers waited for. Luke Perry, star of Beverly Hills, 90210, was in South Florida at the fashion mall in Plantation, but the wait, for some teens more than six hours, was too much, and the excitement uncontrollable. The crowd, barely containable before he walked onstage, erupted. They pushed and shoved to get at the teen star, knocking down barricades, until finally, Perry had to be whisked away.
LUKE PERRY
I said to myself, "This is not worth it." You know? It absolutely is not worth it. Um, I want our show to do well, but certainly not at the expense of anyone getting injured, or possibly even killed.
JASON PRIESTLEY
All of a sudden, you know, everybody was involved, and, you know, we had security around us all the time. Like, a show like that, that is that popular, it does become a double-edged sword.
PETER FERRIERO
The biggest things that I've gotten out of the Beverly Hills, 90210 Show podcast is this community cares so deeply. The fanbase cares so deeply for all of the actors. 
PETER FERRIERO
There is this deep connection, I think, feeling as if we all experienced high school, or the things that you would experience in high school, together. The character, Dylan McKay, yes, he's a rebel, and yes, he was in trouble, and yes, he was super interesting, and all of that stuff, but there is something inherently just good about that character. That he's looking out for his friends, that he cares, and he's also very soft spoken, so he makes you want to hear what he's saying.
MARGARET WAPPLER
I wrote a book on Luke Perry because I wanted to tell a different kind of story, that was about the way a child a teenager can latch onto a character a man like that, like, early in their career, and grow up alongside that person. You know, it's like, part of the book, for me, is about growing up, and about healing certain wounds. For all the lost teenagers, yet to be found
MARGARET WAPPLER
My dad was an Episcopalian minister, and Grace Church was supposed to be the last stop, and then he got sick with cancer a couple years after we moved here. For the most part, it was myself, and my mom, and my brothers, um, you know, helping out, doing everything for him. By the time I was 14, and 90210 was coming on, um, you know, he was in the last year of his life, and I was especially wanting to escape, and Beverly Hills, 90210 was like Escape Island Number One. You know, the moment I saw Luke Perry, that was the character for me. Right away, when the show debuted, people were comparing Luke to James Dean. They did have a certain something in common. You know, not just the physicality, you know, both being, like, lithe, you know, slim, trim men, but also, this kind of, uh, woundedness, you know? Always, in their performances, was this real, like, kind of pathos, but, at the same time, Luke, himself, had a lot of trepidation around that comparison.
LUKE PERRY
I think that, sort of, in a way, if they make the association strong enough, I'll have to pay the price for the fact that he checked out early. I think when I can no longer fulfill that James Dean fantasy for them, they'll look and get it from someone else, and I'll be gone.
JAMES DEAN
I used to fly around quite a bit, you know? I took a lot of unnecessary chances on the highways.
MARGARET WAPPLER
He knew when to lean into it, he knew how to be smart with it, and play with it, but he also was a little bit spooked by it.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
Planet Hollywood, to begin, was restaurants, and you have to remember this was when "event celebrity" was different than it is today. When Sly, and Bruce, and, uh, Schwarzenegger come to your town to launch a restaurant, you're coming.
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
It's a hot place.
CHRIS BARISH
These Planet Hollywood openings were extraordinary. Um, they were going just wild for him, like, just wild.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
Luke, again, was a burning fire at that time. 10,000 people would be outside, and you'd have Sly, you'd have the famous people, blah, blah, blah. When Luke Perry. It was mass  freak-daddy hysteria.
LUKE PERRY
It's a party like you've never seen before.
FEMALE FAN
It's wonderful! I'm from France. I'm so happy to see him!
STEPHEN BALDWIN
I think that comes from, back then, not just Brad Pitt good looks. It comes from the people being your fans, you know? Luke had that love.
FEMALE FAN
I love you, Luke!
LUKE PERRY
I love you, too!
SANTINA MUHA
When I was a little girl, I had two next-door neighbors that were older than me, and they were so cool, so anything they told me to watch, or do, I did. So they came over one day, and they were, like, "You have to watch this new show, 90210. It has this guy, Jason Priestley, and he's so hot." I'm, like, "Okay," 'cause I was boy crazy, a boy-crazy girl, and, um, so the show comes on, and the credits come on, and there's Jason Priestley, and I'm, like, "He's hot. Correct," but then Luke came on, and I love Jason, I love Jason, but Luke just took my breath away. I was, like, "Who is that?" I mean, truly, maybe why I potentially believe in love at first sight. So Luke just surfed onto my screen, and that was it, and that was my number one crush to this day, and then, to find out he was also kind of a bad boy, but he was also, like, a poet, and sort of tortured soul, and then, I mean, the first time we meet him, he's defending the little guy, and so, he's not a jerk, he's just got a little bit of an edge. This was appointment television, as they used to call it. Like, you had to sit in front of the TV, at that time, and we would get on the phone, and we would be silent during, and then during the commercial, "Oh, my god. Blah, blah, blah. This and that. Oh, my god, he's so hot," and then "It's back on, shh!" We're watching, in silence, on the phone. You know, you hold it like this. I mean, I still sort of lean this way a little bit, and I think it's from the phones in the '90s. I remember there was Luke, and, uh, Jason, and whoever else, they were doing an appearance at the Freehold Mall, which was not far from where I lived, and I begged my mom to take me, and she was, like, "No way!" Because I was recently injured, so I'm in a wheelchair, and she's, like, "I'm not taking you to the mall where these cast members are like The Beatles right now, and everyone's, like, bombarding the stage. I'm, like, "I hate you!" You know, I pulled a full Brenda on her, and was mad at her forever and ever about it. Did not forgive her for years, and years, and years.
INTERVIEWER
Do you enjoy being a sex symbol?
LUKE PERRY
God, you know, I don't think of myself as being a sex symbol, for starters. If I am it's okay.
JASON PRIESTLEY
That morning, when we shot that Rolling Stone cover, Luke and I were pretty hungover because we'd been out the night before, but Shannen was in good shape, and we were amazed that we were getting the honor of being on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. It was a big deal. We both understood the importance of it, for sure. At a certain point on the show, like around the, I don't know, second or third season, he became obsessed with being on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine, because he knew that that would legitimize him in a in a certain way, and I was, like, "Really? Vanity Fair?" You know, because, to me, Vanity Fair was something that old people read, right, but that's exactly why he did it, and he was super smart in that way.
MARGARET WAPPLER
Luke is, arguably, the most famous player from the show. He's definitely getting the most attention. Uh, people are really noticing him, talking about him. 
Unlike the Rolling Stone cover that they did, where it's Shannen, Jason, and Luke, this is really zeroing in on Luke, and, you know, he's shirtless, and got these pistols, sort of, like, slung in his jeans, and it's real sexy-cowboy time. 
MARGARET WAPPLER
Yeah, he sort of bites the hand that's feeding him, in a sense. Like, he doesn't go as far to say that 90210 is shlock, or anything, but he does sort of wink a bit at his fame, make fun of it even. You know, at one point he says, "I am product! Hear me roar!"
JASON PRIESTLEY
That Vanity Fair article didn't focus on Beverly Hills 90210, and it focused a lot more on who Luke was as a person. I think Luke understood the importance of letting the world know that he was more than just this Dylan McKay. He and I were both very conscious of it, and we talked about it a lot. Like, how to distance yourself from a super successful show like that, and how difficult it was, right? And how difficult it was gonna be for us in the future. I think that that Vanity Fair article did a lot to help Luke start to separate.
CHARLES ROSIN
There was a fundamental divide between who did movies and who did television. 
Writer & Executive Producer, Beverly Hills, 90210These were TV guys doing TV, doing really well with TV, but longing for something else, and these young actors all wanted to be "that guy", and  who knew who "that guy" would be?
LUKE PERRY
10, 15 years from now, I would like to see myself in a place that, uh, is far away from here. (laughing) It's, uh, quiet, and country, and, uh there are no flashbulbs.
JASON PRIESTLEY
We talked about the fact that he wanted to leave the show, uh, and of course at that point in time, you know, we all we all signed five-year contracts, and, uh, Aaron didn't renegotiate before the end of your fifth season. Um, and so Luke started talking about leaving the show in the fifth season, and I said, "Luke, dude, we're just about to start making money. You can't leave right now. Like, this is It's about to start getting good over here, and all the hard work's gonna pay off." He was, like, "No, dude, I gotta go, I gotta go. I know, I understand, but I gotta go." I was, like, "Bro, you're. Uh, okay."
NEWS REPORTER
Luke Perry, who plays Dylan on Beverly Hills, 90210, will reportedly be bumped off in the season's sixth episode. We reported earlier that Perry plans to pursue a movie career, and wanted out of the popular TV show. Fox says it can't confirm or deny the story.
JASON PRIESTLEY
I still can't believe it, man. You, getting married.
LUKE PERRY
Better get used to it, Brando. I got a new life.
JASON PRIESTLEY
So I directed Luke's last episode, and it was, you know, emotional for me, because my friend was leaving, right? Luke's character and Rebecca Gayheart's character are getting ready to get married, and but her father, who's a mobster, doesn't like doesn't like Dylan McKay, and doesn't think he's good enough for his daughter. He takes out a hit on Dylan McKay, and unfortunately, the hitman kills the wrong person. I knew this was a big moment for Luke, and so I  You know, I got rain towers out there, and lit it up so it would look super dramatic, and anyway. Luke comes to me, and he says, "I wanna do this thing. I wanna fall to my knees, and look up at the sky, and ask God why he's done this to me," and I, you know, and it was another time where I was like, "Ooh, that's a big choice. That's a That's a risk, brother, but okay," and he, uh, and he comes out, and he does it. It turned out to be really effective just because just because he was emotionally connected to what was happening. He wasn't afraid to make big choices.
90201 ACTOR
think it was a carjacking.
LUKE PERRY
No, god! Brandon! Oh, baby! Oh, my god!Look what they did to her, Brandon! (sobbing)
JASON PRIESTLEY
When Luke left the show, it was really hard Luke was my brother and I think it was hard on everybody else, too, 'cause Luke had really, really deep connections with everybody on on the show. Everybody on the set. Our crew, too, like, you know, Luke was He was a really good friend to a lot of people. You know, I also understood why he wanted to do it. He had a lot of creative drive inside him, and he wanted to do more. He wanted to do more.
KRISTY SWANSON
The early '90s in show business was absolutely fantastic. A lot of actors our age, in town, you know, just kind of know each other, and, uh, would socialize together. We became friends, and he was getting ready to shoot this Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie. He was so excited about it.
LUKE PERRY
Could I describe this movie?
INTERVIEWER
Would you?
LUKE PERRY
Not in a thousand words or less, certainly not. Um, it's, um, it's a comedy, it's a love story, it's scary. It's, uh we shoot the whole damn thing at night, so it's dark, and, um, it's funny...
KRISTY SWANSON
He was, like, "Swanny! You gotta read this script. You have to read this script. Like, you would be the perfect Buffy, trust me on this." I was, like, "Okay..." But of course, I had to go through the process of, you know, auditioning, but he had my back the entire time, and he knew me personally, you know, so he saw that humor that I had, and that I could bring to the film.
LUKE PERRY
I play Pike, and Pike is the damsel in distress in the movie here, you know? He's, like So we did the big role reversal thing, and Swanson's the hero...
KRISTY SWANSON
He loved the fact that the girl was kicking ass in the movie. That's what he loved about the script, so 'Cause I remember him selling me on it, like, when he was telling me about the story. He was, like, "Oh, my god, and she's funny, and she's kicking ass all the time."
LUKE PERRY
Hi.
KRISTY SWANSON
Hi.
He loved all the stunts that I got to do, and he would always, always cheer me on, always. Like a cheerleader, like a mascot, in a way. 
"Oh, Swanny, that kick was high! Oh, my god!" You know? Like, he'd be, like, "Damn! Look at that side kick!" And he loved playing that guy that was, like, "Okay, do your thing. Go do your thing," you know? "Go be you, go kick ass," you know?
KRISTY SWANSON
Luke always had my back on the set. Whatever it could be, at any given moment, he was always a shoulder to cry on, someone to pat you on the back, or someone to tell you, "Get over it, get out there and do it." You know what I mean? Like, he was that guy. Even after the movie, always supportive, of my life, of my career, him having children, me getting married, having children, you know, like, staying in touch with each other. 
I am so grateful that he had a vision, and he saw me in that role, and I will never forget that.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Because of the level of fame that he had, he figured out that he would be able to get to people. He could call their office and they would return his call, no matter who it was, and that's how he got 8 Seconds made. He bought the rights to Lane Frost's story, and he called Mike De Luca, who was the head of New Line at the time. Like, nobody just calls Mike De Luca, but Luke just called his office, and was, like, "Hey, I've got a project. I wanna come in and pitch it to ya," and De Luca was, like, "Uh, okay."
KRISTY SWANSON
I know that 8 Seconds was a passion of his, to make that movie, and he knew the family, and I know that the studio promised him that they would make that film, but they just wanted to get Buffy done first.
JACKIE NESPRAL
That first big role for a young actor is very important, but sometimes, even more important, is that second big part. For actor Luke Perry, star of Beverly Hills, 90210, the role of Lane Frost, his second big part, might be the door opener for a long and successful film career.
JASON PRIESTLEY
If you've never seen bull-riding at a rodeo, you don't know, but they are, you know, 2,000-pound, angry, wild animals that don't give a shit if they step on you, if they hook you with their horns and throw you out of the ring. They're terrifying. And Luke told me he was, like, "Yeah, dude, I'm gonna I'm going out to Riverside this weekend. I'm gonna ride a bull." I was, like, "What? Dude, you're not a bull-rider! What are you doing?"
STEPHEN BALDWIN
I'd never hung out with Luke that much. We kinda knew each other, but we're friendly, kind of, within the industry, and I get this phone call, like, random. And I answer, and he goes, "Hello, Baldwin?" and I go, "Yeah?" He says, uh, "Luke Perry.Oh, hey, man." He goes, "Hey, man, uh, I've got this thing going. It's this rodeo movie. We got to get together, we've got to talk about it," and I'm going."Okay, Luke. Are you calling me to say you want to make a movie, and you and I are gonna really ride bulls?" and he's, like, "Yeah. I'm calling you to say I'm making a movie, and if you say yes, we're really gonna ride bulls," and I'm, like. This is Luke Perry, right? Like, you know what I mean, he's cute, but. He's I think he's you know, he's gotta be, like, kidding.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Luke was bull-riding. No messing around. They couldn't afford 10,000 extras, so he had to really go to rodeos, and get on real bulls, and try to hang on.
LUKE PERRY
Okay, boys! All right! All right!
STEPHEN BALDWIN
I never got to know Luke until we did the movie. To get to know him as an artist, and an actor, and kinda see a guy who really was taking a risk. This was not a joke. This was, like, a serious feature film. He was considered a handsome television star.
INTERVIEWER
I was really impressed at how this film didn't, uh, gloss over the rough spots in his life.
LUKE PERRY
Yeah, that was very important to me that we not do that, because, to me, that's the story. I mean, that's an integral part of the story. Uh, a lot of times, people are very envious because it looks real good to be the champ, but, you know, you got to make some sacrifices to get there, and you gotta make some to stay on top, and it is paying the price for those sacrifices that's often very painful.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
That's my favorite part of, you know, knowing Luke, and having been friends with him, was that he was that real deal as an actor. You know, he wanted to live the experience. He wanted to create the character. He wanted to live that thrill, and then, Luke, himself was, you know, a cowboy in his own right.
LUKE PERRY
I think it's important for the audience to experience the danger, and if they don't sense the danger of Lane Frost being on a bull, they will sense the danger of Luke Perry getting ready to get his head stomped in, and, uh, if they see that it's actually me on there coming out, then I think makes a lot of other elements in the film work.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
If you asked me, kinda being the youngest, rough and tumble Baldwin brother macho, competitive did I think Luke Perry was a tough guy? No. Not before I met him. But what was cool about him was he was a little crazy. He had this little bit of nuts. That little bit of nuts is why Paul Newman raced cars. I think his fire was the cowboy, so the opportunity to transfer that into the greatest bull-rider of all time, who also was considered to be one of the humblest, kindest guys Lane Frost,
STEPHEN BALDWIN
How do you play the balls of that fearlessness, and the niceness of that sensitivity? That's a fricking hard role to play. He was like a Newman. He was like a Redford, too, but he was more like and I love you, bro but he was more like, uh, a James Dean, because James Dean was so smokingly attractive when he went sensitive. Luke also understood how to do that, as an actor, which is hard when you're so good-looking. For some reason, the AD said to me, like, after the second day of shooting, he says, "Hey, man, you know, we're gonna just send one car in the morning just to pick you and Luke up, instead of just two cars, 'cause you're going to the same place, we're just gonna make it easier for transpo." I go, "Yeah, man. Cool, yeah," so the next morning, I get in this car with Luke, and we get on the freeway, and Luke goes and the driver gets off this exit, and right off the exit is a crane, a huge crane, going about four stories up, with a bungee jump attached to it, so, he goes, "Come on." I go, "What are you doing?" He goes, "Bungee jump, bro. Let's go." "Bro, we're gonna get in trouble." He goes..."Nobody's gonna know." My hair's standing up on my arm doing it right now, and that's the Luke I got to know. This is the first time I'm telling this story. We did a bungee jump on the way to the set, every day for seven days. We were jacked on adrenaline by the time we got there. We were ready to ride bulls. 8 Seconds is considered to be in the top 10 greatest rodeo pictures of all time. Do you know how many rodeo pictures have been made? He's the John Wayne of bull-riding movies, Luke Perry.
JASON PRIESTLEY
He really connected to that, sort of, you know, Western community, and, um, and he bought a piece of land in Tennessee, and started working the land, and, you know, and started taking a lot more roles, like, sort of Western roles, right? Like, I think making 8 Seconds really changed him, and changed the trajectory of his career.
When Luke got the script for Normal Life, he was super excited by the opportunity, because he really wanted to work with John McNaughton. He saw that movie as a great opportunity, and a great opportunity to distance himself more from Dylan McKay and from, you know, being a teenage heartthrob.
STEVEN A. JONES
John and I were both fascinated with the popular term is "outliers", but, you know, "criminals" better term for it. Fascinated with people that didn't take the normal path, and had to find some other way to get by.And because we both have quite the perverse sense of humor, and perverse attitude towards many things, the trickier and more, you know, criminal, in a lot of ways, they were, the more interesting those characters were to us.
NEWS REPORTER
Till death do they part may have been their vow, but at the time of their capture, at least, Jeff Erickson seemed more inclined to part from his wife than die with her. The end came after two-and-a-half years of unsolved bank robberies in the northwest suburbs. The so-called "bearded bandit", with the disguise of several layers of clothing, facial hair, and heavy gloves, stuff, which, along with a police scanner, were reportedly found in the bullet-riddled van December 16th.
JOHN MCNAUGHTON
This story was big news in Chicago. In fact, we would see them on the news robbing banks because, you know, security cameras. They would come in, and at first it was just him, uh, and he would wearing a fake beard and a Cubs hat. and then his wife, who had mental issues, uh, she was kind of a thrill-seeker, and she found out that he was robbing banks because they were going brok and she loved the idea, and wanted to go with, and she did and then they both went down in huge gunfights, and died, and it was pretty intense.
STEVEN A. JONES
The movie, Normal Life, had fallen apart, and, uh, we couldn't get anybody to put any money into it, and then we got a call from the William Morris Agency, and they had just taken Luke on as a client, and they said, "We hear you're doing this movie, and we'll raise the money for you to make this movie," and, uh, I said, "Well, I don't know, you know, we're really specific about our casting," and they went to a rental store, rented a cassette of the  of the rodeo movie, Eight and a Half Seconds  FedExed me a rental video cassette, and I walked it over to John's house and put it in his VHS machine, and said, "Well, you know, this guy will be great."
JOHN MCNAUGHTON
I was never a huge 90210 fan, and to me, it was, like, "What's some teenage heartthrob" It's just, like, you know. I don't But a lesson I have learned always meet the person, because you never know. We sat down, and Luke sat down, and of course, everybody knew who Luke Perry was, in the room, uh, but Luke was so, uh, very unaffected by it, and very down to earth, and, uh, even though Luke was a big celebrity, he didn't act like a big celebrity. He acted like a human being, and, uh, I just changed my opinion. I said, "This guy's great, and let's go!"The locations for Normal Life was all that area out by the airport, which is where the real story took place. It was all built in the post-war era, and, uh, suburban sprawl.
STEVEN A. JONES
And we walk into this bank with Luke, and this guy comes up to us, and goes, "Oh, so what are you doing?" you know, and we're, like, uh, "We're shooting a movie about these guys, the Ericksons," and he goes, "He robbed this bank," and I said And Luke was standing right  right here. I said, "He robbed this bank?" He goes, "Yeah, yeah, he robbed this bank," and he goes over to the drawer, and he pulls out a photograph of Erickson in his getup that nobody had ever seen. He goes, "Yeah, I was there," and I said, "Sir?" "Yeah?" I said, "What was it like?" He goes, "He just came in screaming profanity at the top of his lungs," and I looked over at Luke, and he's, like, "Yeah, I got it." 
LUKE PERRY
Freeze, motherfuckers! And I mean now! Nobody move! Gimme that fucking gun! Nobody move. Get over there! Lay down on the floor! You, too! Get Lay down!
STEVEN A. JONES
I mean, both of their performances are astounding in my  in my opinion, uh, but Luke's, in particular, just for the calmness of most of it his had to all be in here, you know?
LUKE PERRY
Is this the way you want to play it, Pam? You don't want to live anymore, I don't want to live anymore, either.
STEVEN A. JONES
So we're shooting the movie, and we're probably most of the way through it, and we said, "Luke, uh, you know, we never saw 90210, not one second of it," and he just stared at us for a second, and he goes, "Do you understand how hard I was trying to work so that you would forget about my TV career?" and I said, "No, you had us from the word go. You came in completely, you know, completely unblemished. We were just looking at your work, and it was  it's so incredible that we're good."When we got it all finished, uh, they were gonna test it, and they tested it in  it was actually a suburb of Oakland, and when you test a movie, you go find an audience, and the way you do it, is you ask them about some other specific kinds of movies, and they they asked the audience, "How would you like to see a Luke Perry movie?" Well, the audience didn't They thought that, "Oh, 90210, it's gonna be this  that kind of a movie." The selected audience that they put in those seats hated the movie, because they were  they felt they were lead downthe wrong path, and then they wouldn't put it out in the theatres. It was awful for me, it was worse for John.
JOHN MCNAUGHTON
So, New Line just, you know, I think they released it in some small amount of I don't think it was even in major city just to speak of. Then, I was angry. Now it's the breaks. I think Luke, you know, he became such a pro. It just, like, this is the way of the world. I mean, you could Now, it's just, like, well. if you get lucky, say a prayer, but if not, "Moving on." "Next." You keep working.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Any time you're a teen heartthrob, everyone just assumes that you're a shitty actor. You're just a You're just a good-looking kid, right? I think that was a lot to overcome, but Luke, you know, never stopped trying.
LUKE PERRY
I have had the chance to work with, uh, filmmakers that I respect, and do the kind of work that I want to do, and it's just a matter of time. You know, you play a number of parts, and then after a while, people don't really connect you with one-one thing anymore, but, um, you know, I was always very clear on  on what the show did for me, and what I did for it. I just felt it was time for me to play other stuff.
DEAN WINTERS
There's a casting director named Alexa Fogel. She calls me one day, and she goes, "Listen," she goes, "I have this actor coming into town, and he doesn't have a lot of friends in New York, and he needs he needs a buddy." I'm, like, who is it?" and she goes, "Luke Perry." I was, like, "Really?" and then I was, like, "Okay." I showed up, and, you know, Luke had  He always had a baseball cap on, and we started talking, and  I don't take people on very easily, but, like, he was just a really genuine soul, and he was extremely humble. You know, I didn't really bring him around my crew at first. Um, I wanted to, like, really just kinda get to know him, and kinda ease him into it, you know? Because New York was a whole new thing for him. We became very close, very fast. I was doing this show called Oz, and he had held this back for a while, but he goes, "All I wanna do is, I wanna be a part of something like that." He goes, "I need to shed, you know, Dylan, you know, that whole image."
TOM FONTANA
Dean Winters is truly the king of New York. He knows everybody, goes everywhere. Can get into any place he wants to get into. So I met Luke through Dean, and he said to me, "Do you think you could write a part for me?" and I said, "Absolutely." First of all, I wanted to explore that Christian community that exists in prison. Second of all, because I wanted the character to be an incredibly successful, uh, preacher, I wanted to make sure that I had somebody who brought with him a kind of fame, as opposed to hiring an unknown actor, and then having to convince the audience he was famous, you hire Luke Perry, and you're you already got half the job done. He's so honest in his acting, that I knew he would be genuine. He wouldn't, like, mock the character. He'd just be who the guy was supposed to be. The tension between the different communities that made up, uh, Oz, was always a great place to start a new character, because they don't know, and when a character doesn't know, like, Luke didn't know when he first met Vern Schillinger, he has to discover very quickly what the rules are.
LUKE PERRY
Let him who suffer take away your suffering.
J.K. SIMMONS
Get your fucking hand off me.
TOM FONTANA
Once he came onto the set, he was very much committed to the character, and Luke disappeared in a lot of ways. When I talked to Luke about being on the show, I said to him, "You know, the thing about being in Emerald City is, when there are group scenes, all the actors have to be there, even if they have no dialogue, and if that's a problem for you, then you shouldn't do this," and he said, "I have no  absolutely no problem with that," and I would see him with the other  with the extras playing the Christians, and I would see them gathered, praying, without being told to do that. He just He just said, "Look, we're, you know, the scene's gonna  let's, let's pray," and I just thought that was wonderful, you know, that he was creating within the space the world that he thought that character would motivate.
DEAN WINTERS
And I remember, like, I wasn't really working in those scenes, but I remember I went to watch him, and I was just, like, �fuck this guy's fucking good!" He had enveloped his character. He became Jeremiah Cloutier. So, the first day of filming with Luke, we're There was a part of the prison called M-City, right? Um, and there's a scene where Luke walks from his cell to the showers, and to get there, he's gotta walk through, like, a hundred extras, and, he's we're talking the Hell's Angels, Bloods, Crips, Latin Kings, right? And then the core and then the core cast, and so, Luke is walking from his cell to the showers. He has a towel around his waist, right? And people people, as he's coming out, people were, like you could see people were registering that they knew who he was, right? They're, like they're, like, "Is that fucking Luke Perry?" And I'm just looking around, because no one really knew, and as he's walks out to the showers, he just drops his towel, and he's fully naked, fully naked, I'm getting chills telling this.
PRISONER
Oh, man!A-yo, minister, baby! 
DEAN WINTERS
And everyone just starts clapping, because they knew that he was now, in that  what he did in that moment was he's, like, "All right, I'm one of you guys, now. I'm not some guy that just came from 90210, who's not gonna do the hard stuff," and from that moment on, he was just, like, part of the family. On Friday night, we would all go out to this place called The Hog Pit for drinks, and I go looking for him at, like, 7:00 at night, and I can't find him, and so, I asked one of the P.A.s. I said, "Hey, do you know where Luke is?" She's, like, "Oh, he's on the roof." I go, "The roof?" I go, "What roof?" She's, like, "Yeah, you climb that ladder up there, and then you get to the roof." I go, "I've been working on this show for four years, I didn't know you could go to the fucking roof," right? So I climb this little ladder, go through, like, a manhole to the roof, and I get up there, and it's sunset, right? And it's sunset over New Jersey, over the Hudson River, and the sun is dipping. All I can see is Luke, uh, sitting on, like, a little, you know, piece of scaffolding, and I didn't call his name, 'cause I felt like he was having a moment, and I walked up to him, and I sat down next to him,and I saw he was crying, and it was and I just looked at him, and I looked at the sunset, and he was still crying, and and I said I said, "Luke, are you okay?" And he goes, "Brother," he goes, "This might be the best day of my life," and I didn't say another word. We just watched the sunset together, and then when it got dark, we went downstairs, and we joined the cast, you know, at the bar, but he told me, he's like, he goes he goes, "I've been waiting for an experience like this since I became an actor." You want your work to kind of match the evolution of who you are as a person. He wanted to get something off his chest. "I'm not Dylan anymore, right, and this is what I have to say, and this is who I am. I'm someone different."
LUKE PERRY
The stage that Jason was driving these racecars, they didn't care it was Jason Priestley in the cockpit of that car. You have to be able to perform the service at a very high level.
JASON PRIESTLEY
In 2002, I had a big, uh. I was racing Indy Lights, and I had a big crash in, uh, in Kentucky, and they airlifted me to the University of Kentucky. The news broke, and people were sending well wishes, and calling to figure out what's going on. Everyone was trying to figure out what was going on, but the first person who arrived at the hospital to visit me was Luke.
LUKE PERRY
I got right up where I could see his face, and I looked right down into his eyes, and I said, "Jason," and I talked to him a lot, and I screamed at him, and I got really close.
JASON PRIESTLEY
I was so high, because I was so broken, and I looked at him, and I said, "Coy L. Perry. Thanks for coming, man."
LUKE PERRY
I knew that Jay was gonna be all right when he said my name, um, because he said my name as it exists on my birth certificate. He didn't just say, "Hey, Luke."
JASON PRIESTLEY
My girlfriend, who's now my wife, she was, like, "Oh, no, something's wrong. "Something  He doesn' he doesn�t he doesn�t recognize Luke. This is a big deal!" And then Luke had to explain to her that his real name was Coy. 
LUKE PERRY
He knew that was his job at that time was to let those people know that he was still  had it going, and that's how smart he is.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Luke was a great friend that you could rely on to turn up, right? That was part of his  That was just part of his ethos.
LUKE PERRY
My relationship with Jason is different than any other human being in the world, though, and we that's the other thing that he and I know, um. Different than brothers, different than family. We don't know why it is, we don't know how it is. We just know that's how it got to, and, uh, we're cool with that. He's he's a good one to have on your side.
JASON PRIESTLEY
The fact that he was there, uh, in Kentucky, um, you know, a day after I had my accident was, uh, it was, uh, it was remarkable. It really speaks to his character, right? He was just that kind of guy.
LUKE PERRY
Jason and I, we were trying to tell people back then that, you know, what's coming to be true now  we're gonna do other things that aren't gonna be as successful. You gotta know that. Everybody is. Not, you know, you don't hit a grand slam every time up, but you also don't quit coming up to bat either, and, uh, that's the trick. You gotta keep coming up to bat, and you hit the ball, and you do what you do.
BARBARA FISHER
I joined Hallmark as an executive, and one of my first meetings was with Luke Perry, because he had done a movie for Hallmark called The Gunfighter's Pledge, and Luke loves Westerns. As it turns out, I love Westerns. I grew up watching Bonanza, and The Wild, Wild West, and the Virginian, all that stuff, and we found out we were both from Ohio, so we really connected on that. Uh, mid-westerners really connect out here when they find each other.
JASON PRIESTLEY
The John Goodnight movies, it was a concept that he had written on a legal pad, on an airplane one night, flying somewhere, and he took it in to Barbara Fisher at Hallmark, and sold it! The same way he did with 8 Seconds! He just, like, walked into an executive's office, said, "Hey, I got this idea. What do you think?" 
BARBARA FISHER
And he didn't have to really convince me too much. Luke played a circuit judge in the wild western territories. Luke knew the guy to go to, the ranch to go to, the guy, you know, Danny Virtue, who dealt with the horses. He just He was immersed in it, but, like so many projects, right? If you have the right name, they get made, and for us, Luke Perry was the was a really good name. 
BARBARA FISHER
Luke came up with the idea to have Jason Priestley direct it, and we thought, "Oh, my god." First of all, this is PR gold, you know? But not to mention that we knew Jason was a really good director, but I just wanted to go and watch the two of them together.
JASON PRIESTLEY
Luke called me. He said, "Jay, I'm developing this Western. I want to do it with ya," so, I said, uh, I said, "Hey, great, man, that's perfect," uh, because Luke and I have been trying for a long time to find, uh, something to work on together again.
LUKE PERRY
I have such a good shorthand with Jay, and, um, he's very talented. He composes a great frame.
JASON PRIESTLEY
He is so close to this script, and so close to this character already, um, because he's been  You know, he's been living with this character for a couple years.I got to spend two months, uh, just hanging out with Luke every day. He would come with me on location scouts, and he was super involved, and, you know, that  I think that movie, and ultimately that series of movies, I think was incredibly important to him.
LUKE PERRY
As a kid, I'd sit around, and I'd watch all these Westerns, and I just thought, "Well, I'd love to do that, and I'd love to do that," and now I just, sort of, find myself drawn to stories that will allow me to get involved in the action sequences of my dreams.
GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE ACTOR
Who the hell are you?
LUKE PERRY
My name's John William Goodnight. I'm a circuit judge. Sworn jurisdiction in this territory.
GOODNIGHT FOR JUSTICE ACTOR
There's two of us and one of you. I like those odds.
LUKE PERRY
When I drop this hammer, one of you is gonna be dead. There's a 50/50 chance that's you. You still like those odds, gambler?
JASON PRIESTLEY
John Goodnight was an alcoholic, for sure and a womanizer, for sure and Luke wrote all that into the character, and I think that Luke understood complex characters are just more interesting, and complex characters are what people want to watch.
BARBARA FISHER
I've made a lot of movies, and been in television for a lot of years, and I can't really say that I became close friends with the people I worked with, but something was different about Luke. If you connected with him, you've connected, and when he felt a connection, he made you his friend. I mean, I kinda thought, like, you know, we  I was an executive, we got the movies made, we had a good time, kinda end of story, but that's not what Luke did, and I didn't take the lead, Luke did.
MARGARET WAPPLER
You know, when I started working on this book, and reading about what an amazing Dad Luke was. You know, Luke had two children. You know, he made choices in his career to be closer to them. Like, he wouldn't take certain jobs or roles, because they would take him too far away from his family, so he really wanted to be present in his kids' lives. That really meant a lot to him.
JASON PRIESTLEY
When Luke and Minnie had Jack, I could tell that it affected him, uh, deeply, and that, you know, I think he felt the weight of, uh, of being a parent, like we all do. He couldn't have been happier. I think he'd wanted to be a dad for a long time.
CHRIS BARISH
I think being a dad was something he was proud of. Being around kids, um, he really liked. He had a soft way.
KRISTY SWANSON
I remember his kids being very little, and he'd show you pictures. He just, he couldn't stop talking about his kids. They were his pride and joy.
MARISOL NICHOLS
The first time I met him was 90210, and I had just moved from Chicago to L.A., and I think I did, like maybe three gigs, and then I got 9021 and I remember, like, Luke, I was, like, "That's Luke That's Luke Perry. Oh, my god, that's Luke Hi, nice to meet you!" And, like, just being cool, "I got it, I got it, I got it." I think I only did, like, one or two episodes, but, um, it was a very, very brief encounter, and then when I saw Luke again on Riverdale, I was, like, "Do you remember me?" and he's, like, "I totally remember you!"On Riverdale, we were at the drive-thru, where our characters remember their past lives together. In that moment, it was art imitating life.
LUKE PERRY
You know, I'm having d�j�-vu. Yeah, senior year, we're here watching Candyman. God, I hated that movie.
MARISOL NICHOLS
You picked it.I was up there alone with my daughter, who was, I think, maybe eight or nine at the time, and I hadn't been to Vancouver, so, Luke was, like, "Hey, do you know about the little ferry boats? You can catch them, and they'll take you and your daughter, and you go over to Granville Island. You can shop around." And I must have looked, like, a little, like, confused about where to go, or what to do, and he's, like, "You know what are you free Saturday?" And I was, like, "Yeah," and he's, like, "I'll take you guys," and he got us on the ferry, and he went and did the whole thing. He was just, like, hosting us, for no reason whatsoever, except for just to be a great guy. That's who Luke was.
GABRIEL CORREA
I think maybe the kids, maybe KJ told me the story. You know, it was at the end of season one, and they were having some dinner here, and I think Luke took that as a moment to sort of tell them a little piece of advice, and, you know, he was not the loudest guy in the room, so I can imagine how he sort of presented this but say something to the tune of, like, "Your lives are about to change. Like, do you realize that," and, like, what does that mean, right? I honestly don't know how the kids took it. I'm sure some, maybe, believed him, some not, um, but, you know, if you think of Luke's career, to him, it's kind of, like, "I've seen it all. I've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, and I'm here sort of telling you that despite what you think is gonna happen to you, I lived through it, and this is the reality."
MICHAEL SCOTT
Well, I think it's, you know, he saw himself in them, the way he had been 
BARBARA FISHER
Yeah.
MICHAEL SCOTT
You know, back then, and he wished, I think, that somebody had told him a little bit of the ropes and I think he probably learned the hard way, in terms of the challenges of being, you know, an ensemble in a series, and some of the politics, and jockeying for position. I mean, there's all kinds of other layers that go on behind the scenes.
BARBARA FISHER
That just makes sense to me that he would want to mentor, in a fatherly kind of way, these people, these young  these young actors, because I think he was a real mentoring type. That's kind of who he was. Not everybody's good at that. Luke was really good at that.
HODA KOTB
Luke, do you have any advice? Because sometimes, I mean, look, everyone who's gone through that, you've been
LUKE PERRY
Yeah, and especially with this one, because he's so talented, and such a great actor. Concentrate on the work, and play different parts, you know, and treat everybody well, and he's doing great.
GABRIEL CORREA
I started on Riverdale as an Assistant Director, and for people who have no idea what that is, you're like a conductor. Luke was there, and, you know, he'd pull me to the side, and he's, like."I see what you're doing, you know?" He's like Next year, I think you should be directing one of these, but you just you just do your thing, and it's gonna happen," and then he said  He said, "We'll push for it. And after I got a chance to direct there, I did my first episode. I had one scene with Luke. He comes to me after he's wrapped, and he's, like, "Hey you're doing amazing, man. Like, I see what you're doing. You're smart, you're getting what you need. Just don't think about it. Just keep breathing. Do your thing. Don't overthink, do your thing. You're doing amazing."100%!
MARISOL NICHOLS
We're gonna sing like we're at karaoke. Like.
GABRIEL CORREA
To me, it was very clear that Luke's support was about the work, and that's what was really cool, because he was a pro.
DIANNE YOUNG
All journeys in life start with one step. I took a step into your office, and it was the first step on the trip of my life. What a ride! Thanks for believing in me. Love, Luke Perry."After Luke was hired, he came to my office, and he said, "I have a present  couple presents I wanna give yoy.
DIANNE YOUNG
And I said, "A magnifying glass?" He says, "Yes, that's for you to keep looking for more people, and like you did, and you found me," and he goes, "And the horseshoe is for luck in finding them." 
SANTINA MUHA
Could've been, like, four years after I'm living in Los Angeles, something happened to me where I ended up in the hospital for three months, and one of my friends shared a manager with Luke, so, unbeknownst to me, she wrote an email to her manager, and was, like, "My friend is a huge fan of Luke Perry. 
SANTINA MUHA
Is there any way he could call her, or send her a 'Get Well' card?" So, one day, um, I'm in the hospital, and I had just had a sponge bath, and I have no makeup on, I have, like, my and my glasses on, you know, my hair's in a French braid. I basically look like how I looked when I was nine years old, watching the show. The door opens and I swear to God, Luke Perry is standing at my door, and he walks in, and he shuts the door behind him, and he comes over, and he, like, hugs me, and now I'm, like, crying in his arm, and then I realize I'm crying in Luke Perry's arm, so then I start crying harder, and then he goes, "It's okay. It's just you and me. It's just you and me right now." I'm, like, "This guy his guy!" You know, he was so patient with me and my freakout, and then, eventually, I collected myself, and he pulled up a chair, and he sat across from my hospital bed, and we chatted. We just talked for, like, an hour, and it was all so surreal, and just a quick note on be careful what you wish for, because I was not wearing sweatpants the day I met Luke Perry. I was wearing no pants. Then he says, "I'm so glad your mom didn't take you to the mall that day, because that's not how we were supposed to meet. This is how we were supposed to meet, because now we know each other." I mean and, by the way, also, now I forgive my mom for not taking me to the Freehold Mall. I've been in movies, I've I've done very, very cool things. I survived a car crash. This was the best day of my life.
DEAN WINTERS
He didn't call me when he booked Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I saw it in the trades. I called him immediately. I was, like, "You motherfucker" I was, like, "I am so fucking happy for you," because everyone wants to be in a Tarantino film. Period. So, I mean, I called him, and I was, like, "Luke," I was like, "This is fucking amazing!" He's, like, "I know, brother." He goes, "Isn't this crazy?" He goes, "I didn't think this was ever going to happen." I go, "How did it happen?" He goes, "I don't know."
TIMOTHY OLIPHANT
I met him at the read-through for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. We, more or less, were two guys known for their television work, and there we were surrounded by movie stars, so, you know, immediate sort of connection, as in, "How about us hanging out at the table? How'd we find ourselves here?"
TIMOTHY OLYPHANT
I remember even Margot Robbie was, like, "I've never been to a read-through like this," and I was just like, "Yeah." I just remember Quentin, his respect for Luke, and how psyched he was that he was doing it. You know, he was in that powder-blue suit, and I was in the cool red shirt with the brown leather jacket. I remember saying to him, "I don't know if we got the coolest part, but we definitely got the coolest wardrobe," and, you know, he had that thing that, um You know, you're on a set and you're behind a monitor, and they're showing you playback or something, and even if the take's fine, even if it's really good, I remember always seeing, like, when they called "Cut," that was the most natural moment right there, right? (laughing) Right? My point being is my experiences working with Luke is you couldn't tell the difference. It didn't matter whether we were rolling or not rolling, you're just talking to Luke Perry. He and I were sitting across from each other in that little stagecoach, and we definitely had those moments, and I remember looking at him and saying, "Look at us, you and me."And cut!You know, Quentin does this thing  Shooting on film, it's the old thing, right? He wants two takes, and he's moving on. He refers to those two takes as the big sister and little sister, so we're doing that stagecoach scene, we did that whole take, the scene you just showed me, and Quentin says, you know, "We have our second sister..." and so the whole crew starts to pick up, knowing that means we're moving on, and then Quentin says, "But you know what? Let's do one more," and the crew within earshot all yell, "Why?" and then, the crew then, within further out, 'cause they heard everybody yell, "Why?" all yell, in unison, at the top of their lungs, "Because we love making movies!" And then everybody cheers, and they go back to one and I remember that moment, and I look across at him, and he pulls up that blue suit, and he goes shows me his arm, he's got goosebumps all over his arm and I just thought, "Yeah, you and me both, buddy, you and me both. Not bad."
INTERVIEWER
Leo, you have this amazing scene with Luke Perry who plays a TV actor 
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
See, honey? I told you they'd come to parlay.
LUKE PERRY
You all right, honey?
LEONARDO DICAPRIO
Oh, she's just fine.I was just immediately struck by his his kindness. And you know, talking about being a native of Los Angeles, being around this industry my entire life, and really having it, you know, in a lot of ways, shaped who I am. I There was this immediate excitement in seeing Luke Perry, you know, on set.It was incredible. I I remember being, you know, in my teens, and he was the manifestation of the new Dean on television, and everyone was crazy about him, and I actu  I felt this overwhelming feeling of kind of being starstruck, but then he and I got to sit down and talk about Los Angeles, the '90s, his life, where he  where his career had gone, where my career had gone, where his life had gone, where my  and I could  I was just so, um how do I say this? The kindness of his character, just an incredibly generous human being.
NEWS REPORTER
Family, friends, and fans are mourning the death of actor, Luke Perry, who died this morning at the age of 52, following a massive stroke last week. His publicist says he died in L.A., surrounded by his family and friends.
JASON PRIESTLEY
The morning that Luke had his stroke, I was at home. I was in my kitchen, and my phone rang, and it was Jenny and Jenny told me that Luke had had a stroke, and they were  and he was on his way to the hospital, and I was shocked, and I was stunned.
DEAN WINTERS
I think Brian Austin Green texted me. I not sure  I don't think it had hit the press yet, and, uh Yeah. That was fucking sucked. Fucking terrible. I had just  I had  I knew someone who had passed away from a stroke before that, and so I didn't have a whole lot of faith. I wanted to, you know? I don't think anyone used the word "brother" with me the way that he did. We had really great conversations, and almost nothing to do with the business, you know what I mean? So I appreciated that about him. I just I just miss, uh, I miss having him as a friend. I hope I see him again sometime, you know?
MARISOL NICHOLS
If Luke was here. I would tell him, first of all, I'm so sorry that you didn't get more time.
STEPHEN BALDWIN
Luke Perry's in Heaven. I'm a crazy Christian. He's riding all the best bulls now, bro. (laughing) He's on the  He's  He's on the ultimate ranch now.
KRISTY SWANSON
He was just one of those people that touched my life in such a great way, and someone that I looked up to, someone I admired, appreciated, just one of those people that you just  that they're always in your mind, and you'll never forget them.
GABRIEL CORREA
Thank you. 
JASON PRIESTLEY
I'm an eternal optimist. I thought, "Yeah, he's had a stroke. You know, my dad had a stroke a few years ago. You know, he'll be  he'll be okay." 
JASON PRIESTLEY
At that point in time, I was talking to Jenny, and I was talking to Ian, I was talking to Brian, I was talking to Gabby, I was talking to everybody and then he passed away, and it was, um it was, uh, it was  It was a shock, and it was sad, 'cause he was a he was a bright light.
LUKE PERRY
When my time here is up, I don't wanna look back and see that I didn't do anything, you know? And by that, I mean, uh, I didn't have any effect on anything else, I didn't I see a lot of people that let their life happen to them, and I want to happen to my life. I don't want my life to happen to me
I Am Luke Perry
Fremantle Version