Stephen Park Revisits Racist Incident onFriendsThat Prompted 1997 Open Letter: 'It Did Not Feel Safe to Say Anything'

Mar. 15, 2025

Steve Park in ‘Friends’ and in 2023.Photo:NBC; Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

NBC; Rocco Spaziani/Archivio Spaziani/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty

Actor and comedian Stephen Park is looking back on what he describes as a “toxic environment” he experienced on the set ofFriendsin the ’90s and the racist incident that led him to write anopen lettercalling out Hollywood’s marginalization of Asian American actors.

Park, who also guest-starred in a 1998 episode ofBoy Meets World, joinedDanielle Fishel,Rider StrongandWill Friedleon theirPod Meets Worldpodcast where the hosts asked him about his 1997 “mission statement.”

“At the time, for me, I felt it was kind of a toxic environment,” Park said of theFriendsset.

The actor appeared on the series twice, playing different roles in the season 2 episode “The One with the Chicken Pox” and in season 3’s “The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion,” alongside fellow Asian American actorJames Hong. Park recalled a crew member calling Hong to set, “essentially saying, you know, ‘Where the f— is the Oriental guy? Get the Oriental guy.’ ”

James Hong in ‘Friends’.NBC

NBC

Parkwrote in 1997that the unnamed crew member “did not even have the respect to learn the name of the actor, a veteran of 40 years.”

“I was the only one who took notice, while all others proceeded as if it was business as usual,” he wrote. “Given the atmosphere on the set, it did not feel safe to say anything.”

“Why don’t I write a mission statement to Hollywood?” Park recalled thinking. “Because this is bigger than this show. This isn’t the first time this has happened … this is business as usual in Hollywood in 1997.”

But, Park said, while theL.A. Timessent reporters to interview him, the paper never published his statement. Instead, he sent the piece out to his email contacts, encouraging them to forward it on.

Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and Steve Park in ‘Friends’.Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Gary Null/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

“I was getting responses from all across the country from publications that were asking permission to reprint it,” he recalled. “It went viral before viral was even a word.”

Park said the experience of writing the piece and talking about it left him disillusioned with Hollywood. “I decided to quit acting,” he said. “I had become so race conscious and so angry … I didn’t have any idea what I was gonna do, but I just decided to drop out.”

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“It took me a while, I think, to not only get back into the business but to move beyond this race consciousness that had overwhelmed me,” he added.

PEOPLE has reached out to both NBC and theLA Timesfor comment.

source: people.com