Jennifer Anniston admits Friends crew ‘should have thought show’s offensiveness through’
Jennifer Aniston admits that the cast and crew of Friends ‘should have thought things through’, after the show has come under fire in recent years.
The beloved 90s sitcom has been called out for its lack of diversity despite being set in one of the most diverse cities in the world: New York.
Aniston made the comments at a junket for her new film, Murder Mystery 2 which will be released later this week.
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The Netflix film picks up where the last film left off, with Nick and Audrey Spitz setting up their own private detective agency.
However, it’s not long before the married couple must embark on an international trip when their friend is suddenly abducted.
Starring Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler, the action comedy will also see the duo team up with a SAS mercenary played by British actor, Mark Strong.
Whilst you can expect a lot of laughs in the new film, Aniston has been reflecting on her previous comedy roles in a recent interview.
The Emmy-award winner starred in Friends from 1994 until the series ended a decade later.
Despite being one of the original castmates, the actor admitted that the show hasn’t aged well during a junket for her new film.
Speaking about the criticism surrounding Friends, she told AFP: “There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive.”
The show has largely come under fire for its lack of diversity, with few actors from ethnic minorities appearing in the long-running NBC series.
Those that do appear were also often cast as short-term girlfriends of Ross Gellar, which only further added to the controversy.
Whilst the 54-year-old insisted this was ‘never intentional’, she did state that those involved ‘should have thought it through’ and added there wasn’t the same ‘sensitivity’ to such issues at the time.
She continued, stating that film and TV had ‘evolved’ since the early nineties and noughties.
The Morning Show star also confessed that she finds modern comedy ‘tricky’, saying: “Now, it’s a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves.”
However, the Just Go with It star says there’s still a need for non-PC jokes.
"Everybody needs funny,” she said, adding: “We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”
Topics: Friends, Celebrity, Jennifer Aniston, TV and Film
Katherine Sidnell