David Schwimmer: "Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends"

The Guardian

In an interview with The Guardian, Schwimmer was asked about Friends not holding up to today's "woke" times. “I don’t care,” he says, dismissively. “The truth is also that show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships. The pilot of the show was my character’s wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended." Schwimmer says Friends should be locked up at in the context of its times. “Maybe there should be an all-black Friends or an all-Asian Friends,” Schwimmer says. “But I was well aware of the lack of diversity and I campaigned for years to have Ross date women of color. 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." Schwimmer also admits that he has certain privileges. "I’m very aware of my own privilege as a heterosexual white male whose parents were able to pay for a private education for me," he says. "I’ve always felt a sense of responsibility to give back and to call things out if I see an abuse of power.”