Jennifer Aniston: ‘Many Gen Z don’t like Friends’

Jennifer Aniston said it is increasingly difficult to make comedy films, for example the series “Friends” is still criticized by young audiences today.

On March 29, Aniston told AP in an interview on the occasion of promoting the new movie: “There is a whole new generation – young people – who rewatch Friends episodes and feel offended. There are details that are meaningless.” “Love and some things should have been considered more carefully. But I think the reason is that at that time it was not as sensitive as it is now.”

The actor said comedy filmmakers are facing more and more challenges. “You have to be very careful. It’s difficult because the nature of comedy is to satirize people and life. In the past, you could make fun of conservative people. It’s simply about letting people know who they are.” How ridiculous. Now, we’re not allowed to do that anymore,” Aniston added.

Friends first aired on NBC on September 22, 1994 and ended on May 6, 2004, and is considered a monument to the sitcom genre. The content tells about the life of a group of six friends in New York. The series still has a strong appeal to a large audience around the world, being the most popular program on the Netflix system even though it was released more than 25 years ago.

According to Insider, recently, the film has received a lot of criticism such as the lack of ethnic diversity in the cast and many offensive details. In 2020, Lisa Kudrow – who plays Phoebe – attracted attention when she said Friends would not be able to cast all white stars to play the main characters if produced in today’s context. Many black actors were invited to play supporting roles such as Lauren Tom, Gabrielle Union, Mark Consuelos, Aisha Tyler or Craig Robinson. Among them, Aisha Tyler – as Charlie Wheeler – has the most screen time with nine out of 236 episodes.
After the success of the series Friends, Jennifer Aniston quickly became a star in A Hollywood and moved to acting in movies. She succeeded with romantic comedies such as The Break-up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go With It (2011). In 2019, she returned to acting in television dramas after 15 years with the series The Morning Show, winning a SAG award in the female television drama category.