Lisa Kudrow Says ‘Friends’ Diversity Problem Stemmed from Creators Backgrounds: “Had No Business” Writing POC Stories

Lisa Kudrow is weighing in on the Friends diversity debate, offering her own hot take on the issue after calling out the show for its all-white main cast a couple of years ago. Kudrow, who said in 2020 that Friends would look “completely different” if it was made now, seemingly defended the series’ casting in a new interview with The Daily Beast.

Kudrow starred on Friends as Phoebe Buffay, acting alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — all white actors. When asked by The Daily Beast how she feels about “the diversity on Friends,” Kudrow pointed to the series creators, David Crane and Marta Kauffman.

“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,” Kudrow said.

She added, “They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color. I think at that time, the big problem that I was seeing was, ‘Where’s the apprenticeship?'”

Kudrow’s comments come after she told The Sunday Times in 2020 that Friends should be “looked at as a time capsule” and “not for what they did wrong,” but also praised the show for its progressive storylines.

“There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together? We had surrogacy, too. It was, at the time, progressive,” she told the outlet, referencing Ross (Schwimmer) raising a child with two women.

Kauffman, one of the Friends creators, has spoken up in recent years about the lack of diversity on her show, and donated $4 million to her alma mater, Brandeis University, to specifically support its African Studies Program.

“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years. Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy,” Kauffman told the Los Angeles Times in June. “It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”