Friends star Lisa Kudrow speaks out about the show’s lack of diversity
Since Friends wrapped up in 2004, the mammoth sitcom has still persistently occupied column inches as people continue to look back at its curious legacy. The latest revisionist debate about the show’s lack of racial diversity has even drawn Lisa Kudrow to comment.
The actor who played Phoebe Buffay in the show told The Daily Beast that the sitcom was merely reflective of the world that its creators knew, and that Marta Kauffman and David Crane had “no business” writing about POC.
She commented: “Well, I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college. And for shows especially, when it’s going to be a comedy that’s character-driven, you write what you know.”
Adding: “They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of colour. I think at that time, the big problem that I was seeing was, ‘Where’s the apprenticeship?’”
This isn’t the first time that Kudrow has commented on the lack of diversity in the show having previously stated that the comedy would look far different if it was remade today.
Furthermore, Marta Kauffman actually recently donated $4million to create a fund to support African and African American studies at Brandeis University in response to the embarrassment she felt over the success she garnered from a show with such little diversity.
