She’s there for you! Jennifer Aniston mirrored on the criticism surrounding her hit present Friends — and claimed comedy has modified over time.
“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” Aniston advised AFP in an interview revealed earlier this week. “There were things that were never intentional and others … Well, we should have thought it through, but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”
The Murder Mystery star defined that it has turn out to be “tricky” for comedians over time. “You’ve to be very careful,” she stated, including that “the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves” and “make fun of life.”
“[In the past], you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were,” she advised the outlet. “And now we’re not allowed to do that. Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”
Aniston starred as Rachel Green on the NBC sitcom from 1994 to 2004 alongside Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc. While the present has maintained standing as each a crucial and fan darling, it has confronted criticism for its absence of variety. (Throughout its 10 season run, Friends solely launched two recurring characters who have been individuals of shade.)
In August 2022, Kudrow, 59, who portrayed Phoebe Buffay on the comedy, mirrored on why creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane may need struggled to write extra numerous story strains.
“I feel like it was a show created by two people who went to Brandeis and wrote about their lives after college,” the Opposite of Sex star advised The Daily Beast on the time. “And for shows especially, when it’s going to be a comedy that’s character-driven, you write what you know. They have no business writing stories about the experiences of being a person of color.”
Kathleen Turner, who performed the a part of Chandler Bing’s transgender mother or father on Friends, advised The Guardian in January that she most likely would “not” have taken the position if it have been supplied to her in the present day.
“There was no question of casting a trans person or a drag queen [for the part] … it was never considered,” the actress, 68, claimed. “It never crossed my mind that I was taking a role from someone.”
Kauffman, in the meantime, received candid about missteps she made whereas writing the character in July 2022, telling BBC World Service’s The Conversation, “Pronouns were not yet something that I understood, so we didn’t refer to that character as ‘she.’ That was a mistake.”
She later made a $4 million donation to her alma mater, Brandeis University, to fund an endowed chair within the college’s African and African American research division.
“Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It’s painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I’m embarrassed that I didn’t know better 25 years ago,” Kauffman advised The Los Angeles Times on the time. “I want to make sure from now on in every production I do that I am conscious in hiring people of color and actively pursue young writers of color. I want to know I will act differently from now on. And then I will feel unburdened.”
She added, “I’ve gotten nothing but love. It’s been amazing. It surprised me to some extent because I didn’t expect the news to go this wide. I’ve gotten a flood of emails and texts and posts that have been nothing but supportive. I’ve gotten a lot of ‘It’s about time.’ Not in a mean way. It’s just people acknowledging it was long overdue.”
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