Friends Alum Adam Goldberg Criticizes the Show’s Lack of Diversity

While Adam Goldberg looks back at his time on Friends with fondness, he also recognizes criticism the show has received in the 30 years since it first premiered.

“In terms of diversity, looking back, it seems insane,” Goldberg, 53, stated in an interview with The Independent published on Sunday, September 8. “I’ve heard Black people speak about this and it’s like, you never expected to see yourself, so when you didn’t, it was not a surprise, and you ended up identifying to characters, irrespective of their race.”

Goldberg went on to say that having a lack of diversity on TV was “the norm” at the time, adding, “I spent a lot of my career complaining about how Italians can play Jews. You see [Robert] De Niro play Jews, but you very rarely see someone who’s a known Jewish actor playing Italian. So that’s where my head was at.”

He continued: “Or I would get feedback about not being all-American enough, which, you know, if you were to say that to somebody now you’d probably be fired. Or maybe not, because all-American has become such a derisive term. But yes, the entire culture was like that, and television was just an amplification of that culture.”

Goldberg famously played Chandler’s (Matthew Perry) eccentric roommate, Eddie, in three episodes of Friends in 1996. Eddie took over Joey’s (Matt LeBlanc) room in the apartment after he got his own place thanks to his Days of Our Lives salary. Eddie and Chandler’s personalities quickly clashed, resulting in Chandler ordering him to move out.

Despite his criticisms, Goldberg told the outlet that he’s “so happy to be part of the show’s legacy,” adding, “I am glad that I had a small but offbeat contribution to that.”

Goldberg is one of many stars to acknowledge criticism of Friends over the years, particularly when it comes to jokes about weight, the LGBTQIA+ community and diversity among the cast.

“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive,” Jennifer Aniston, who starred as Rachel Green, told AFP in March 2023. “There were things that were never intentional and others. … Well, we should have thought it through, but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.”

Without addressing specific story lines or characters, Aniston, 55, noted that it’s become “tricky” for comedians to make certain jokes. “[In the past], you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh — that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were,” she said. “And now we’re not allowed to do that. Everybody needs funny! The world needs humor! We can’t take ourselves too seriously. Especially in the United States. Everyone is far too divided.”

Friends cocreator Marta Kauffman expressed regret over the way the show depicted Chandler’s transgender parent (played by Kathleen Turner). “We kept referring to [Helena] as ‘Chandler’s father,’ even though Chandler’s father was trans,” she said in a July 2022 interview with BBC World Service’s The Conversation. “Pronouns were not yet something that I understood, so we didn’t refer to that character as ‘she.’ That was a mistake.”

David Schwimmer, who starred as Ross Geller, revealed to The Guardian in January 2020 that he “campaigned for years for Ross to date women of [color],” but he faced backlash for pitching an “all-Black Friends or an all-Asian Friends.”

At the time, actress Erika Alexander called out Schwimmer’s comments, writing via X, “Hey @DavidSchwimmer @FriendsTV — r u seriously telling me you’ve never heard of #LivingSingle? We invented the template! Yr welcome bro.” (Living Single, which aired from 1993 to 1998, followed a group of African American friends living in Brooklyn.)

Schwimmer, 57, later issued a lengthy apology, claiming he did not mean to suggest Friends was the first show of its kind. “If my quote was taken out of context, it’s hardly in my control,” he wrote. “I assure you I meant no disrespect.”