Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (LONDON) — David Schwimmer recently weighed in on a Friends reboot, as well as recent criticism about the iconic television show’s lack of diversity.
The U.K. paper The Guardian asked the actor, who played Ross Geller during the show’s 10-year run, for his take on the possibility of bringing back the sitcom. In short, like his fellow cast members have said, it’s not happening.
“…I think everyone feels the same: why mess with what felt like the right way to end the series?” Schwimmer said. “I don’t want to do anything for the money. It would have to make sense creatively and nothing I’ve heard so far presented to us makes sense.”
Schwimmer was also asked about his thoughts on prevalent criticism that Friends faces for lacking diversity, and containing elements that some perceive now as transphobic and fatphobic, among other issues.
“I don’t care,” responded. “The truth is also that [the] 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,” he continued.
“I feel that a lot of the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context,” he told The Guardian. “You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time. I’m the first person to say that maybe something was inappropriate or insensitive, but I feel like my barometer was pretty good at that time. I was already really attuned to social issues and issues of equality.”
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