Zoe Kravitz criticized Friends for jokes on the show that she claims didn’t age well past the ’90s.
The 36-year-old actress said the fan-favorite sitcom of the yesteryears was one thing she would prefer to keep in the past.
She shared her thoughts on the show — which starred the late Matthew Perry in addition to Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and many more — in an interview with People.
This comes amid her ongoing promo tour for her new movie Caught Stealing with co-star Austin Butler as well as romance rumors with Harry Styles.
While chatting about their crime-thriller which takes place in 1998 New York City, the pair got nostalgic and revealed what they missed from that decade.
‘Even just being in the apartment [on set] and seeing the Nintendo 64 on top of the TV. We had the GoldenEye , I saw that,’ Butler said.
Zoe Kravitz criticized Friends for jokes on the show that she claims didn’t age well past the ’90s
They listed how they missed using answering machines and VHS tapes among many as well as ‘not having cell phones’ all the time.
‘Or my cell phone was that Nokia brick thing,’ Kravitz added about a prop she used while filming the movie. ‘You had a big, old thing, yeah,’ Butler added.
Kravitz said she is ‘really nostalgic for that time.’ She continued: ‘Then also the fashion, all that stuff’s so cool. New York City and the grunge. It’s a good time.’
As for what she would leave behind, she answered: ‘Super homophobic jokes on mainstream television. If you watch Friends now, you’re like, “Whoa, that’s…”‘
Butler replied and asked: ‘Wow, even in Friends?
‘Oh, so much in Friends,’ Kravitz replied. ‘Like, things that aren’t punchlines are punchlines. It’s wild. So maybe that? We can keep that there.’
In response, Butler agreed and added: ‘That’s crazy. Yeah, keep that in the ’90s!’
Kravitz’s criticism of Friends comes after the creators behind the sitcom, which aired from 1994 to 2004, previously admitted how some of their storylines and jokes did not age well, sharing the same sentiment as the nepo baby actress.
The 36-year-old actress said the fan-favorite sitcom of the yesteryears was one thing she would prefer to keep in the past; pictured in 2002 still from left to right: Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry
She said there were ‘super homophobic jokes’ in Friends that did not age well; pictured June 1994 portrait
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Co-creator Marta Kauffman said that ‘every time I watch an episode, there’s something I wish I could have changed. All the time.’
She told USA Today in 2019: ‘Like, how did we leave that joke in there? Or, really, that storyline? That’s what we went with?’
On the other hand, David Schwimmer, who is best known for playing Ross on the show, defended Friends in 2020.
‘The truth is also that show was groundbreaking in its time for the way in which it handled so casually sex, protected sex, gay marriage and relationships,’ he told The Guardian.
‘The pilot of the show was my character’s wife left him for a woman and there was a gay wedding, of my ex and her wife, that I attended.’
He explained his stance and added: ‘I feel that a lot fo the problem today in so many areas is that so little is taken in context. You have to look at it from the point of view of what the show was trying to do at the time.
‘I’m the first person to say that maybe something was inappropriate or insensitive,’ he said at the time. ‘But I feel like my barometer was pretty good at that time.’