Friends star Lisa Kudrow spoke about the lack of diversity on the famous NBC sitcom, saying the show’s creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman “had nothing to do with writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color,” considering their backgrounds.
The 59-year-old actress spoke about the issue in a story with The Daily Beast on Wednesday, more than two years after she said the show lacked representation throughout its 10 seasons.
Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on the comedy from 1994 to 2004, said Crane and Kauffman produced content that was familiar to them from their personal lives.
The Latest: Friends star Lisa Kudrow, 59, spoke about the lack of diversity on the famed NBC sitcom, saying the show’s creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman “had no right to write stories about the experiences being a person of color” when reflecting on their backgrounds. The star was photographed in LA last March
“I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their life after college,” Kudrow said. “And especially for shows, if it’s going to be character-driven comedy, you write what you know.
“They have nothing to do with writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color. I think the big problem I saw at the time was, “Where’s the education?”
Kudrow previously said in an interview with The Sunday Times in May 2020 that if there were an actual incarnation of the series “it certainly wouldn’t be an all-white cast”, adding that the show “should be viewed as a time capsule”. , not for what they did wrong.’
Kauffman, 65, told the Los Angeles Times in June that she is focused on including diversity in her future work.
Friends executive producer Kevin Bright and creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane were photographed at an event in NYC in support of the series in 2019
Starring (LR) Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc, the popular series ran from 1994 to 2004
“I want to make sure from now on in every production I do that I’m consciously hiring people of color and actively nurturing young black writers,” she said. “I want to know that from now on I will act differently. And then I feel unencumbered.’
She said that initially it was “difficult and frustrating” to hear criticism of the series for the show’s lack of representation.
Kauffman said that in an effort to right the wrongs, she made a $4 million donation to Brandeis University to create the Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies. It aims to “endow a distinguished scholar with a focus on the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa and the African diaspora”.
Kudrow said of Friends, “I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college.” She was pictured in LA in June
Earlier this year, Kauffman donated $4 million to Brandeis University to establish the Marta F. Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies
Kauffman said the 2020 killing of George Floyd was a turning point in her awareness of systemic racism and how the popular series may have contributed to it.
“After what happened with George Floyd, I began to wrestle with the fact that I had bought into systemic racism in a way I never knew I had,” Kauffman told the newspaper. “That was really the moment I started investigating my participation. I knew then that I had to correct the course.”
The series starred white actors Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. Cast members of color who appeared in the series included Aisha Tyler, Gabrielle Union, Lauren Tom, Craig Robinson and Mark Consuelos.
Kauffman said she’s “learned a lot over the last 20 years” and was “embarrassed.” [she] didn’t know any better 25 years ago.”
She remarked, “Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It hurts to look at yourself in the mirror.’