A veteran actor who appeared on “Friends” recalled witnessing racism on the set of the beloved NBC sitcom.
Steve Park detailed the alleged incident, which occurred while filming the Season 3 episode “The One With the Ultimate Fighting Champion,” during an interview on the “Pod Meets World” podcast Monday.
Park, who guest starred as a character named Phil, said fellow actor James Hong, who played boxing coach Hoshi, was the subject of a racial epithet.
“[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 claimed.
The “Fargo” actor went on to note that racial insensitivity was considered “business as usual” in Hollywood in the ’90s — and that the incident was not the first he had seen.
“Nobody felt the need to correct this or say anything about it. So this is normal behavior,” he said.
When Park contacted the Screen Actors Guild about the racist comment, the labor union recommended he write to the Los Angeles Times.
He said he sent a “mission statement” to the newspaper, but, despite “a couple of reporters” interviewing him, a story was never published.
The former “In Living Color” cast member eventually released his statement as an open letter to the Hollywood stars in his “email list.”
In the statement, Park described his feelings about the incident in more detail.
“Given the atmosphere on the set, it did not feel safe to say anything. After all, on the average Hollywood set, finding a person of color is much like trying to find Waldo,” he wrote at the time.
The comedian — who previously appeared as Chandler Bing’s co-worker Scott Alexander in the Season 2 “Friends” episode “The One With the Chicken Pox” — said on “Pod Meets World” that he believed the show’s set was “a toxic environment.”
Park also described how his hyperawareness of racism in Hollywood made him so “angry” that he put his acting career on pause.
“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,’” he said.
However, the actor returned to work a few years later, starring in the critically acclaimed indie film “Rocket Science” in 2007 and Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City” in 2023, among many other projects. Most recently, he played Agent Zeke in “Mickey 17,” which hits theaters Friday.
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