Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay across all 236 episodes of Friends, has spoken about the show in an interview with The Times. Although obstensibly promoting her role in Space Force, Netflix’s upcoming sitcom from Greg Daniels (The Office), Kudrow talks a lot about her star-making TV role.
While Kudrow clearly loves the show, telling The Times “I don’t see a reality where Friends was anything but good,” she also acknowledges that a version of Friends made in 2020 would have to change some things–especially its all-white cast.
“Oh, it’d be completely different,” Kudrow says, reflecting on what a modern version would have to change. Kudrow agrees. “It would not be an all-white cast, for sure.”
Kudrow believes that the show “should be looked at as a time capsule, not for what they did wrong,” at least in terms of its representational issues. At the same time, she says that the show “thought it was very progressive” in some ways.
“There was a guy whose wife discovered she was gay and pregnant, and they raised the child together,” she notes. “We had surrogacy too. It was, at the time, progressive.”
Friends continues to be huge in 2020, and Kudrow also talks about the upcoming reunion being filmed for HBO Max. “It’s not us playing our characters,” she says. “It’s not an episode. It’s not scripted. It’s six of us coming together for the first time in I don’t know how long. I am really looking forward to it.”
Kudrow’s next sitcom, Space Force, hits Netflix on May 29. Season 1 will also feature Steve Carell and the recently departed Fred Willard.
