Matthew Perry wanted Zac Efron to play him in planned biopic

Matthew Perry was working on a biopic — according to one of the last people to see him before his tragic death on Saturday.

Athenna Crosby, who was photographed having lunch with the actor the day before he died in an apparent drowning, told Entertainment Tonight that Perry, 54, was excited about the idea of casting Zac Efron as himself.

Perry and Efron, 36, previously worked together in 2009’s “17 Again.”

“He said that he wanted to make a movie about his life,” Crosby, 25, told the outlet. “And he had worked with Zac Efron in the past on a movie, and he said that he wanted Zac Efron to play him as a younger version [of himself] and that he was gonna ask him soon to do that.”

According to Crosby, the “Friends” alum was eager to share his story, including his recovery from yearslong drug and alcohol addictions.

“He was just looking forward to sharing more about his story and his recovery from addiction,” Crosby elaborated. “And really championing that cause to help more people, so he was so optimistic and happy about everything that he wanted to do.”

The Post reached out to Efron for comment.

This would not have been Perry’s first time to ask Efron to work with him after the 2009 romantic film.

In 2022, Perry revealed that he asked the “High School Musical” alum to star in a rom-com he wrote.

“I finished a screenplay that we’re out with to some people. I want to direct that,” Perry said on SiriusXM’s “Pop Culture Spotlight With Jessica Shaw.”

“I have a small part in it. I wrote it for myself and then realized I’m 20 years too old to play this. So we’re trying to cast the leads now,” he continued. “[Efron] said no, so we’ve got to find someone who says yes.”

As The Post previously reported, Perry was found submerged and unresponsive in a hot tub at his California home over the weekend.

“Los Angeles City Firefighters responded to the 18000 block of West Blue Sail Drive at 4:07 PM on October 28, 2023, to find an adult male unconscious in a stand-alone jacuzzi,” the Los Angeles Fire Department stated in a statement obtained by The Post. “A bystander had brought the man’s head above the water and gotten him to the edge, then firefighters removed him from the water upon their arrival.”

A finding as to the “Fools Rush In” star’s manner and cause of death has been labeled “deferred” after an investigator with the LA County Medical Examiner’s Office told The Post that an extensive round of tests — including a toxicology report — into the actor’s death have been ordered.

According to the investigator, the tests are likely to take several months to complete.

Police have reportedly ruled out foul play, and no illegal drugs were found at the scene. An initial test showed that Perry’s death was not the result of a meth or fentanyl overdose.

Perry died mere days before the first anniversary of his memoir’s publication, on Nov. 1. The actor opened up about his battles in “Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing,” but “was sober” and “in a really good place” when he spoke with “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman just two weeks ago.