Friends Co-Creator "Embarrassed" Over Show's Lack Of Diversity, Pledges S$5.6 Million To African Studies Program
Marta Kauffman has pledged US$4 million (S$5.6 mil) to African and African American studies as she apologised for the lack of diversity on Friends.
The 65-year-old, who created the sitcom with David Crane, 64, gave the donation to her alma mater, the Boston area’s Brandeis University, to create an endowed professorship.
The Marta F Kauffman ’78 Professorship in African and African American Studies will support a distinguished scholar with a concentration in the study of the peoples and cultures of Africa.
It will also help the department to recruit more expert scholars and teachers, map long-term academic and research priorities and provide new opportunities for students to engage in interdisciplinary scholarship, according to the university.
Kauffman said she felt “embarrassed” Friends featured a predominantly white cast.
She told the LA Times: “I’ve learned a lot in the last 20 years. 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.”
It took until 2002 for Friends to cast Aisha Tyler, who was the first black actress to become a series regular on the show.
Tyler played Dr Charlie Wheeler, a paleontology professor who ended up dating Ross Geller, played by David Schwimmer, in season nine; she was only on the show for nine episodes.
Kauffman added she regrets making the six main characters all white, but is still happy that Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry were all part of the series.
She previously told the Hollywood Reporter before the Friends reunion special was shown: “I would have been insane not to hire those six actors. What can I say? I wish Lisa was black?”
Schwimmer, too, said he had always been advocating diversity on the show. In 2019 interview with The Guardian, he said, "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." — BANG SHOWBIZ
