Brian Austin Green texted Luke Perry the day after his death, 'couldn't really process' that he was gone

For Brian Austin Green, his friend and castmate Luke Perry is gone but never forgotten.

The actor reflected on the loss of his Beverly Hills, 90210 costar on an upcoming episode of Getting Grilled With Curtis Stone, explaining how he struggled to comprehend that Perry was really gone when he died from a stroke at 52 in March 2019.

"There was a part of me that couldn't really process that that was real. I texted him the day after he passed," said Green, 50. "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.' And I didn't completely believe that, but there was a big part of me that was hoping that that was the case, for sure."

Green said he had considered the eventuality of death but didn't anticipate how quickly a massive loss would materialize. "You know when you have that core of people that are around you that eventually you're gonna get older and you’re gonna start losing people. That's just a part of life," he said. "But nobody ever expected that we would lose someone so early. And I… honestly never expected that it would be Luke. To me, in my mind, Luke was the strongest of everyone. He was the constant guy, he was exactly who he was at all times."

Green also revealed that he thinks about Perry with near-daily frequency. "Luke is still a big part of my life," he said. "Who Luke was and the relationship that I had with him and the connection that I had with him is something that I still — almost on a daily basis — when things happen in my life, I'll stop for a second and I'll think about him and what I learned from him and what I think his opinion would be of what it is I do."

The actor believes that kind of personal impact is more important than the work a person achieves throughout their life. "That is a legacy," Green said. "It's not the stuff. It's not the shows you did. It's the connections that you made with people. It's the lasting imprint that you left on your friends, on your family, on your children. It's the stories that people share about you afterwards."

Watch the video above for more from Green. The full episode premieres Feb. 4.

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