Lisa Kudrow Speaks Out on the Lack of Diversity on ‘Friends’

Photo credit: NBC

Lisa Kudrow is giving her candid thoughts on the lack of diversity on her hit ’90s sitcom, Friends.

The actress and Emmy winner, now 59, reminisced on her career and role as Phoebe Buffay in a recent interview with The Daily Beast, as well as discussed why there would never be a revival TV show or movie with the original cast of the NBC show.

Despite the cult-following Friends still maintains, and the longtime friendship Lisa Kudrow keeps with former costars David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, and Matt LeBlanc, the Romy and Michelle star explained, “If there would ever be anything like [a revival], if [creators] Marta [Kauffman] and David [Crane] ever signed off on anything like that, it would have to be a different cast at that age. I think it would need to be more current—and more diverse representation is not a bad idea, you know?”

Photo credit: NBC

Kudrow admitted that, while the cast lacked racial diversity, it was still the story Kauffman and David Crane felt like they could tell in 1994. “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,” she said. “They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color.”

Still, she continued, “I think at that time, the big problem that I was seeing was, ‘Where’s the apprenticeship?'”

Kauffman has also recently recognized the show’s shortcomings. She previously told The Hollywood Reporter, “There are probably a hundred things I would have done differently.” In response, she pledged $4 million earlier this year to her alma mater Brandeis University. The donation will go towards the school’s African and African American studies department.

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