‘Friends’ Actor Drops Bombshell About ‘Toxic Environment’ While On Set

While "Friends" remains one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time, not everyone who appeared on the show has fond memories of their experience.

Actor Stephen Park, who guest-starred in Season 2’s “The One With the Chicken Pox” and Season 3’s “The One With the Ultimate Fighting Champion,” recently revealed unsettling details about his time on the "Friends" set, describing it as a “toxic environment.”

Speaking on the "Pod Meets World" podcast, Park recounted a disturbing incident involving "Friends"' assistant director and fellow actor James Hong.

“It was at the time, I felt it was kind of a toxic environment,” Park shared. “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.’”

The actor, who has since appeared in "Mickey 17," went on to explain that the offensive language wasn’t an isolated incident but rather part of a broader pattern in Hollywood during the late 1990s.

“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,” he said. “And nobody felt the need to correct this or say anything about it. So this is normal behavior.”

After the incident, Park reached out to the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) for guidance. However, the response he received was less than encouraging.

“The representative recommended I write an article to the L.A. Times,” Park explained. He did write a “mission statement” and sent it to the newspaper, which showed initial interest by sending reporters to interview him. However, nothing was ever published.

Determined to share his experience, Park eventually sent the statement as an open letter to everyone on his email list. According to Park, the letter “went viral before ‘viral’ was even a word.”

The experience left Park feeling disillusioned with the industry.

“I had become so race-conscious and so angry that I was looking at everything through the lens of race,” he said. “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.’”

While Park did step back from acting, he eventually returned to the industry. Since his work on "Friends," he has appeared in a variety of shows, including "Boy Meets World," "Law & Order," "The Venture Bros.," and "Mad About You."

"Friends" may be one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time, but not everything about the show was as beloved behind the scenes.

For example, the show's catchy theme song, "I'll Be There for You" by The Rembrandts, paired with the now-iconic fountain dance sequence, is as much a part of "Friends"' legacy as Central Perk’s orange couch. But according to Jennifer Aniston, the cast wasn't exactly in love with it.

In a 2016 interview with BBC, Aniston admitted, "No one was really a big fan of that theme song." She even found it “a little odd” that they were all dancing in the fountain, despite how memorable the opening credits became to fans around the world.

While it’s hard to imagine "Friends" without David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, the actor almost didn’t take the role. According to Kelsey Miller’s 2018 book, "I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends," Schwimmer wasn’t keen on joining the sitcom.

The role of Ross was written specifically for Schwimmer, but co-creator David Crane revealed during the 2021 reunion special that the actor had sworn off television after a bad experience on a previous show.

"[We] tried to get David, [but] David had quit television," Crane explained. "He had a miserable experience doing another show. He moved back to Chicago to just do theater."

It reportedly took a lot of convincing, with Crane saying they had to "beg" and "beseech" Schwimmer to change his mind.

But Schwimmer wasn’t the only cast member who nearly slipped through the show's fingers. Matthew Perry, who went on to embody the sarcastic and lovable Chandler Bing, was almost unavailable due to another pilot he had booked at the time.