‘Friends’ guest star Steve Park recalls alleged racist incident on set: ‘Toxic environment’

nypost.com:

Friends.”The actor, 62, got candid on guest starring on a 1997 episode of the sitcom, claiming the set was “kind of a toxic environment.”He starred on two episodes — Season 2, Episode 23 in 1996, titled “The One with the Chicken Pox,” and in 1997 during Season 3, Episode 24, “The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion.”The comedian shared that while on set, he overheard a crew member use racist language to refer to another guest on the show — actor James Hong.The unnamed crew member allegedly called Hong, now 96, to set “and essentially saying, ‘Where is the Oriental guy?

Get the Oriental guy.'”This spurred Park to take action. He filed a complaint with the Screen Actors Guild and wrote a “mission statement,” which called for better treatment of Asian Americans in Hollywood.“When I called Screen Actors Guild after that happened, the person I spoke with recommended I write an article to the LA Times,” Park told hosts and “Boy Meets World” alums Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong on their podcast.“This is bigger than this show,” he explained. “This isn’t the first time this has happened.

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 was normal behavior.”The Post reached out to “Friends” co-creator Marta Kauffman’s rep for comment.Park said the LA Times sent reporters to interview him about his mission statement, “and then they never printed it.”So instead, he distributed the statement himself through email, which led to “responses from all across the country from publications that were asking permission to reprint it.