‘Friends’ Actor Stephen Park Recalls “Toxic Environment” Behind the Scenes

One of the most popular sitcoms of all time may not have had a particularly “friendly” behind the scenes environment, according to one of its stars. Friends, the NBC juggernaut sitcom that ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, starred numerous supporting actors throughout its entire run, and one of them has called out the show for having a “toxic environment” behind the camera.

Stephen Park, the veteran comedian who has appeared in films like A Serious Man, Snowpiercer, and Asteroid City, was featured in two episodes of Friends. In 1996, he played Scott Alexander in “The One with the Chicken Pox,” and in 1997, he played Phil in “The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion.” Although it was a brief stint in the cultural phenomenon that is Friends, Park does not have good things to say about his experience on the show. While discussing his role in Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi comedy Mickey 17, he revealed on the “Pod Meets World” podcast that he witnessed and experienced racism behind the scenes, saying:

“It was at the time, I felt it was kind of a toxic environment. James Hong was the actor who was also on the episode with me, and [the assistant director] was calling him to the set and you know, essentially saying, ‘Where the f*ck is the Oriental guy? Get the Oriental guy.’

This isn’t the first time that this happened, you know, but this is the environment where this is business as usual in Hollywood in 1997, I guess it was. And nobody felt the need to correct this or say anything about it. So this is normal behavior.”

James Hong is a veteran actor who has been featured in countless films and TV shows, and more recently, he played the grandfather Gong Gong in the Academy Award–winning film Everything Everywhere All at Once. In Friends, Hong gave life to Hoshi, the coach training Pete (Jon Favreau) in the episode where the millionaire tries to become an Ultimate Fighting champion.

Like Several Others, ‘Friends’ Is Yet Another Show That Hasn’t Aged Too Well

According to Park, he decided to follow up this incident and report it to the Screen Actors Guild. Eventually, he wrote a piece for the L.A. Times, but it was never published. After he realized his statement would get nowhere, he released it on his own and sent it to everyone he knew and the letter “went viral before ‘viral’ was even a word.” He was so disappointed by the lack of response, that he decided to leave the industry for some time. Park continued:

“I had become so race-conscious and so angry that I was looking at everything through the lens of race. I felt like there was no freedom. I didn’t feel any freedom. So, I didn’t have any idea what I was going to do, but I just decided to drop out. I told everybody, ‘I’m not acting anymore.'”

Friends was part of the zeitgeist of late 1980s and 1990s TV productions, when sitcoms were frequently released and the primetime slots were valued as media gold. Shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Frasier, and The Nanny were released around that time, with each one becoming hugely popular. However, it’s clear that they were a product of its time. Some jokes have not aged well, and they’ve been called out numerous times for a blatant lack of diversity. While this won’t make people stop revisiting their favorite shows from the 1990s, Park’s claims will perhaps make fans observe these cultural giants with a little more objectivity.

Source: Pod Meets World