David Schwimmer Got Into The Lack Of Diversity On “Friends”
When the ball dropped on January 1, 2020, Netflix immediately told the world that “they won’t be here for y’all anymore!” when they ripped away Friends from their lineup. To say it was a devastating experience is being a bit dramatic because you can still buy it on DVD (remember those?). Or, you can wait for it to hit HBO Max this May and begin paying for yet another monthly subscription. Hey, your money, your call.
In any event, the world is feeling the absence of our six best friends from the 90s, but it’s hard to let them go since most of them are still in the spotlight. With Jennifer Aniston now playing peek-a-boo on Instagram, the Friends cast is never too far away. And one of them, David Schwimmer, who portrayed Eeyore in human form known as Ross Gellar, is speaking out on one of the biggest gripes many have about the show: that it had just a liiiiiiittttttle more diversity than a Klan rally.
In an interview with The Guardian, Professor Gellar opened up on a litany of topics, relaying how he’s proud of the work he did on Friends, even if it’s not necessarily aging that well within this new era of “I’m sooooo offended!”
“I don’t care,” he says, dismissively. “The truth is also that show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships. The pilot of the show was my character’s wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended.
“I feel that a lot of the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context. You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time.
Oh, but he didn’t stop there. He also addressed the whiteness of one of the whitest shows in 90s history by speaking on the blatant lack of diversity.
“Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends,” Schwimmer says. “But I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of colour. One of the first girlfriends I had on the show was an Asian American woman, and later I dated African American women. That was a very conscious push on my part.”
To quote a phrase all the kids are using, you are now officially CANCELED. How dare he suggest there be an all-black version of Friends because there already was one. It’s called Living Single, and it debuted a year before Friends. Looks like Schwimmer may still be stuck in second gear!!
Pic: Wenn.com