Kathleen Turner Calls Controversial Friends Role a 'Challenge,' 'Never Considered' Hiring Trans Actor

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Kathleen Turner is recounting her time on Friends.

Starting in 2001, Turner played Helena Handbasket — Chandler Bing's parent — on the beloved series. Though it's now understood that the character was a trans woman, throughout the show, Chandler (Matthew Perry) and other characters referred to Helena as Chandler's "father."

In re-examining the role, Turner, now 68, said there wasn't ever a plan to cast a transgender actor as Helena.

"There was no question of casting a trans person or a drag queen – it was never considered," Turner told The Guardian. "It never crossed my mind that I was taking a role from someone."

When asked if she'd ever reprise the role, Turner responded, "Probably not. But I certainly don't regret having taken it. It was a challenge!"

RELATED: Friends Co-Creator Marta Kauffman Says She Regrets How Show Misgendered Chandler's Trans Parent

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Turner previously stated the role was pitched to her as "the first woman playing a man playing a woman" in a conversation with The Gay Times.

Helena, who appeared in four episodes of Friends, was called "gay" or a "drag queen" on the series — and was never formally referred to as transgender.

The character has been highly scrutinized as the years have passed, with even the show's co-creator, Marta Kauffman, expressing regret for how the character was portrayed.

In 2022, Kauffman confirmed Helena was intended to be a transgender woman.

"We kept referring to her as Chandler's father, even though Chandler's father was trans," Kauffman said in a conversation on BBC World Service's The Conversation. "Pronouns were not yet something that I understood. So we didn't refer to that character as 'she.' That was a mistake."

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Kauffman also pledged $4 million to the African and African American Studies department of Brandeis University last year, acknowledging a lack of diversity in the Friends cast.

"I've learned a lot in the last 20 years," she told the Los Angeles Times. "Admitting and accepting guilt is not easy. It's painful looking at yourself in the mirror. I'm embarrassed that I didn't know better 25 years ago."