A Korean American actor who complained of a “toxic environment” on a highly rated TV show in the 90s is for the first time confirming that show is Friends.
The number one rated comedy aired for 10 seasons beginning in 1994.
Stephen Park guest starred on the program in both Seasons 2 and 3. He wrote a widely distributed open letter about his experience that can still be found today. Park never named the program until now when he appeared on the podcast Pod Meets World.
“It was at the time, I felt it was kind of a toxic environment,” Park said on the podcast. “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**k is the Oriental guy? Get the Oriental guy.’”
Park explained in his open letter that the assistant director didn’t even bother to learn Hong’s name and repeated his demand over the walkie talkie.
‘I don’t have time for this! Where’s Hoshi, Toshi or whatever the f*** his name is. Get the oriental guy!’ he recalled the assistant director as saying. “He did not even have the respect to learn the name of the actor, a veteran of 40 years.”
The experience on Friends diminished his enthusiasm for the acting profession and Park said he took a break from Hollywood.
“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 this is normal behavior,” he said on the podcast.
He originally sent his open letter to the LA Times which ultimately decided not to publish it. So he just shared it on his email list and that’s when it went viral.
He ended up being interviewed by the San Francisco Bay Area alt weekly, the Guardian and also the San Francisco Examiner.
The Asian American Arts Foundation gave him an award for his courage of speaking out and Jesse Jackson presented the award to him.
“I decided to quit acting. I had become so race conscious and so angry that I like everything, I was looking at everything through the lens of race, and I felt like I
couldn’t there. I was just there’s 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 and I told everybody I’m not acting anymore.”
His break from acting, however, didn’t last long. He has appeared on such shows as Pretty Little Liars, Supernatural, Pink Panther, The Mindy Project and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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Reporting on the racist attitude of the Friends directing staff is what makes AsAm News invaluable.
Easy for old news like this to get buried in time.
Just like the Japanese American incarceration during World War II… Very few people knew about it until 20 years later in the activist 1960s era.
Keep reporting on these incidents!
Name the director who said that stuff, he deserves to be exposed.