The creator of “Friends” is ashamed of the series: we explain the reason

The creator of “Friends” is ashamed of the series: we explain the reason

The reason why the creator of ‘Friends’ is ashamed of the series

“Friends” was a series from the 90s that told the adventures of six friends in New York. Between its episodes, it had various special guests, such as Julia Roberts, who made an unusual appointment to appear on it.

Other guest stars also appeared, including Alec Baldwin, Gary Oldman, Dakota Fanning and Brad Pitt (who can be seen in ‘Spy Game’ for free on ViX).

However, most of these celebrities, like the show’s protagonists, shared one thing in common: they were all white people.

Especially in more recent years, both fans of the series and critics have noted the lack of representation of racial diversity in the series. This is also considering that the plot of “Friends” takes place in New York, one of the most diverse cities in the United States.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on June 29, 2022, Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of “Friends”, not only openly acknowledged this mistake, but also stated that she was ashamed of it:

“I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years. Admitting and accepting responsibility is not easy. It’s painful to look in the mirror. I’m ashamed I didn’t know better 25 years ago.”

Kaufman became aware of this error after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, which sparked protests in the United States and other parts of the world.

“After what happened to George Floyd I began to struggle with tapping into systemic racism in ways I never realized. That was really when I started to examine the ways in which I had become involved. So I knew I had to correct course.”

In a way, the creator of “Friends” seeks to redeem her mistake

Now that Marta Kauffman has realized that the representation of racial diversity in television productions is relevant, she decided to do something to continue to problematize the issue.

For this, he will donate $4 million to the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at Bandeir University, his alma mater. This support will be used to conduct studies on the peoples and cultures of Africa. In addition, it will help recruit more academics and experts to create more specialized research.

Marta Kauffman, who is also the creator of the Netflix series “Grace and Frankie”, also said that she will make sure that her future productions include in several ways:

“I want to make sure from now on in every production I do that I’m careful to hire people of color and actively seek out new writers of color. I want to know that I will act differently from now on. And then I will feel relief.”

Source: univision

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