‘Friends’ Table Read Set With All-Black Cast Including Sterling K. Brown & Uzo Aduba; Gabrielle Union To Host

Call this “The One with the Diverse Cast.” Sterling K. Brown, Uzo Aduba, Ryan Bathe, Aisha Hinds, Kendrick Sampson and Jeremy Pope are set for an online Friends table read Tuesday. They will re-imagine the Season 3 episode titled “The One Where No One’s Ready.”

The hourlong “Zoom Where It Happens” event with an all-Black cast starts at 6 p.m. Tuesday hosted by Gabrielle Union, who appeared in a 2001 episode the NBC sitcom. Salli Richardson-Whitfield is set to direct.

Brown will play the Ross character, Aduba is Phoebe, Sampson is Joey, Bathe is Rachel, Pope is Chandler and Hinds is Monica. Aduba won an Emmy on Sunday for her supporting turn in Mrs. America, while Pope was nominated for Hollywood and Brown vied in a pair of categories for This Is Us and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.\

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The event is happening two weeks after a Zoom Where It Happens table read of The Golden Girls with an all-Black cast of Regina King, Tracee Ellis Ross, Alfre Woodard and Sanaa Lathan.

The read will support When We All Vote, a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit led by Michelle Obama whose mission is to change the culture around voting by bringing together citizens, institutions, brands and organizations to increase participation in every election.

Emmys Feature Mini ‘Friends’ Reunion With Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox And Lisa Kudrow

Friends made headlines during the Emmys on Sunday night when original star Jennifer Aniston was joined remotely by former castmates Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow — and not-former-castmate Jason Bateman — for a surprise check-in with trophy-show host Jimmy Kimmel. The kicker was that they’ve all been living together since 1994, when the series launched.

Meanwhile, production on a long-awaited Friends reunion special for HBO Max has been delayed multiple times amid the coronavirus shutdown. That situation remains fluid.

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