Lisa Kudrow originally thought Chandler Bing was gay on Friends.
During her recent appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, the Emmy-winning actress reflected on when she read the script for the sitcom’s first season.
“I thought that Chandler character when I read it, I went, ‘Oh, they have a gay character, that’s good,'” she remembered. “That’s all I heard.”
Chandler was memorably played by Matthew Perry, who tragically passed away in October 2023.
Kudrow, who earned wide acclaim for her performance as ‘Smelly Cat’ singer-songwriter Phoebe Buffay, said the late star’s interpretation of Chandler at a table read made her do a “double take” on his sexuality.
The Comeback star continued to describe Perry as a “huge” talent: “I never even in a million years could have envisioned anyone playing the character like that and with his own rhythm and everything. It’s his own.”
Airing between 1994 and 2004, Friends became one of the most successful television shows of all time and catapulted its six leads – Kudrow, Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer – to worldwide superstardom.
While its legacy continues to live on, the series hasn’t aged well due to its lack of diversity and problematic portrayal of the LGBTQIA+ community.
The transphobia and misgendering of Charles Bing/Helena Handbasket, Chandler exhibiting ‘gay panic’ traits whenever he was mistaken as gay and the treatment of lesbian couple Carol and Susan have contributed to the show’s negative LGBTQIA+ reputation.
However, Carol and Susan’s romance was particularly groundbreaking. Their wedding in the second season, which attracted a whopping 30 million viewers, made history as the second gay marriage on a sitcom after Roseanne.
You can watch Lisa Kudrow’s interview with Conan O’Brien here or below.
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