Brian Austin Green is emotionally reflecting on when he first learned of Luke Perry’s untimely death.
The Beverly Hills, 90210 alum recently appeared on Getting Grilled with Curtis Stone — where he was joined by his wife, Sharna Burgess — and he recalled how surreal and unimaginable the experience was.
“There was a part of me that couldn’t really process that that was real,” Green said of Perry’s death, on March 4, 2019, at the age of 52, as a result of a massive stroke.
According to Green, “I texted him the day after he passed. Just because there was a part of me that was like, ‘No, he’s gonna answer back. He’s hiding somewhere. Or something’s happened.'”
Green and Perry co-starred on the show for a decade, from 1990 to 2000, and developed a close friendship during their time on the show and for years after — which made the loss even more difficult to process.
While Green said that he’s thought, from time to time, about the eventual struggle of dealing with his friends and co-stars passing away in the future, he explained, “I honestly never expected that it would be Luke.”
“To me, in my mind, Luke was the strongest of everyone,” Green recalled. “He was the constant guy. He was exactly who he was, at all times.”
To that end, Perry left an indelible mark on Green’s life, and left him with lessons and knowledge that he thinks of and turns to frequently.
“When things happen in my life, I’ll stop for a second and I’ll think about him and what I learned from him,” Green said, “and what I think his opinion would be of what it is I do.”
Perry’s death came just a few months before filming commenced on the meta-revival/reboot of the show that first made him famous, BH90210, and the loss was still difficult for some of his other co-stars to wrap their heads around at the time.
“When we first got together for the first promo shoot, there was a moment, it was heartbreaking, where Ian [Ziering] slipped,” castmate Tori Spelling recalled during an episode of the 90210MG podcast in November 2020. “We were waiting for all of us, and we, you know, we count — it’s like when you have kids and you count your kids — there’s always eight of us, and you count. Ian turned around and said, ‘Where’s Luke?’ and then I saw him catch himself, and he turned away.”
“I could see his heart breaking and he started to cry,” she continued. “But it was what we were all thinking though. We didn’t feel complete, and we still don’t.”
“He had such an impact on the world,” Spelling added. “He was just as special as [everyone] thought he was, or wanted him to be, and even more so.”
For more on Perry’s life and legacy in celebration of his birthday, see the video below.
