'Friends' 30th Anniversary Death Threats Shock: Actress Jane Sibbett Reveals She Was Targeted With Hate Over Groundbreaking Lesbian Character
Jane Sibbett says she was verbally accosted for playing a lesbian on Friends.
Sept. 23 2024, Published 2:15 p.m. ET
Amid the 30th anniversary of the premiere of the hit sitcom Friends, actress Jane Sibbett has recalled facing death threats over her character's sexuality.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Sibbett was subjected to intense backlash for playing David Schwimmer's lesbian ex-wife Carol Willick.
Sibbett, 61, has opened up about being verbally accosted because of her "groundbreaking" character's sexuality – and shared how an X-rated improv scene somehow slipped past producers and made it to TV.
Sibbett played David Schwimmer's on-screen lesbian ex-wife Carol Willick.
While the actress felt her and Schwimmer's on-screen relationship portrayed a healthy depiction of divorce and co-parenting, others disagreed.
When the show aired in 1994, some countries banned the program while other channels "blocked it out" altogether.
Sibbett admitted while the role of a lifetime lifted her out of depression, it also "caused stress" in her life due to her religious upbringing.
Jessica Hect played Carol's girlfriend and later wife, Susan, on the sitcom.
She said: "I would say there was 95% support, but once I had flown to Canada to shoot a Disney movie and a child was yelling at me out of a school window.
"He was shouting, 'Go home, American f---' and I just went, 'Wow, wrong on so many levels dude. Come down here and have a conversation with me.'"
Sibbett also faced threats from members of her church.
She recalled: "Then I had a woman from my old church call me up… and proceeded to tell me that I was going to burn in hell."
Strangers and acquaintances weren't the only ones who scolded Sibbett over her on-screen role – because her own father refused to support the sitcom.
Instead of tuning in to watch his daughter on the hit show, Sibbett's father chose to host a bible study.
She said: "It caused stress in my own family.
"We had a big situation with my father who wouldn't watch the show. Thankfully he came around to it in the end.
"It was heartbreaking that he wouldn't watch it. He would hold a bible study group at the time it aired to ensure his friends wouldn’t see it either."
Susan and Carol's wedding episode prompted Sibbett's godfather to write to her dad and change his mind on boycotting the show.
After the episode aired in which Carol married her mistress Susan, her father had a change of heart toward her character and the show.
She said: "It took my godfather writing a letter to him saying how proud he was of me for the wedding scene that cracked it for my father.
"He thought, 'Wait, I'm not going to be judged for this and it can help people'. It was great for that wound to be healed before my dad passed."
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Despite the "stress" the role sparked in her life, Sibbett felt Carol and Ross' on-screen relationship was "groundbreaking" in more ways than just her character's sexuality.
Sibbett, who originally auditioned for the role of Rachel Green, famously played by Jennifer Aniston, said: "I'm so grateful to have been given the part, no one could have played Rachel better than Jennifer and Carol was such a healthy role model.
"It was groundbreaking for a lesbian character on TV but also for how Carol and Ross handled divorce and co-parenting without fighting. It was a gift."
Sibbett recalled her "groundbreaking" character being a "healthy role model" for navigating divorce and co-parenting.
While looking back on her time as Carol, Sibbett recalled one improvised scene that went over producers' heads and made its way into the episode's final cut.
In the scene, Schwimmer's character shows up at Carol and Susan's apartment in the middle of the night, prompting her to make an "edgy" hint about the two women not being asleep when he arrived.
Sibbett recalled the original script including "some joke that wasn't quite working" with the live studio audience. So, she decided to mimick "plucking a hair" from her teeth as she told Schwimmer he didn't wake them up.
She said: "I didn't even think about whether it'd be approved, I basically wasn't sure that even they'd see it but I just thought, 'Oh, I'm just gonna try it because you're always throwing things out.'
"The audience was laughing but nobody really knew why. The producers were like, 'That's it, that's it. We got it'. Only one producer came over and gave me a thumbs-up after.
"I'm surprised it got into the show. They just must have missed it, standards and practices. They missed it entirely and it ended up in the main show."
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