Jennifer Aniston became a household name due to her NBC sitcom Friends, which ran for 10 seasons, but one of his ex-boyfriends called it out for lack of diversity.
Jennifer Aniston catapulted to fame after playing the role of Rachel Green on Friends. However, her ex-boyfriend Tate Donovan said the sitcom lacked diversity.
Jennifer Aniston’s sitcom lacked diversity
In an interview with IANS, Tate Donovan admitted that Hollywood lacked diversity. He also acknowledged Jennifer Aniston’s hit sitcom Friends as among those shows that failed in that area.
“Most of Hollywood lacks diversity. It’s one of the big problems. We really need to change. It’s ridiculous. It has been since the beginning of my career. It’s embarrassing to see just white men on the set,” Donovan said as quoted by Pinkvilla.
Despite that, Donovan who made a guest appearance on the show praised the cast – Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer. According to him, the cast was so good with what they do.
“They were so good at their jobs. I had dated Jennifer Aniston, so I knew everybody. I would always go and watch their tapings and stuff like that. They’re just so good at their jobs. And they made me feel very welcome. It was great. I had a lot of fun with the cast and crew,” he added.
Brad Pitt also made an appearance on the series. And just like Donovan, he had nothing but praises for the cast.
Friends series co-creator admits lack of diversity
Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman admitted that the show lacked diversity. In an interview with Deadline she regretted not doing more to showcase diversity in her shows. She admitted that she wished she knew the things she knew at present.
“We’ve always encouraged people of diversity in our company, but I didn’t do enough,” Kauffman said.
“Now all I can think about is what can I do, what can I do differently. How can I run my show in a new way? That’s something I wish I knew when I started showrunning but all the way up through last year.”
Friends was also met by cancel culture criticisms for its all-white cast. When Kudrow was asked about the issue, she believed that if the show were produced today, the casting would be entirely different.
“Well, it would not be an all-white cast, for sure. I’m not sure what else, but, to me, it should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong,” Kudrow told The Times while defending the show.
She also described the series as “very progressive.” For instance, the episode featured surrogacy and a married woman who discovered she was gay and pregnant.
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