#the googling if they are gay trope gets me everytime

[anotherobsessedsomething]

Let me shorten this for every person googling this: You are definitely not straight! 😂

[rongasm]

If they were to make a modern day friends who would you cast and y?

Okay, I’m going to assume we’re going to go with character archetypes from the originals, just to make this make a little more sense :) 

Joey: John Boyega 

So, first off, I would want literally everything about Joey to be the same except he’s gay. I want that womanizing trope normally associated with Joey Tribbiani and Barney Stinson, but on a gay man. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Rachel, that would perpetuate harmful stereotypes of gay men being freewheeling spreaders of AIDs who have never heard of monogamy! Which I know because I thought about that too. However, I will remind myself that it’s not the 90s. I also think that it’s time we break free of archetypical gay characters and paint gay people as we are-- full humans, of whom there are many different types. Joey is an incredibly caring friend, a lover of food, and a really great smooth talker. These are all traits that a gay man could have, and I think John Boyega has excellent comedy chops. 

Monica: Anna Kendrick 

I really love Monica-- she’s grown on me as I got older-- and, having recently read Anna Kendrick’s autobiography, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities. So, like, Anna is also really neurotic. She actually has a lot of theatre person energy, which Monica has, but Anna’s ability to portray many different types of women-- the “cool girl” is one of her specialties-- is something I think would be an enormous coo to Monica. You see, those characters that Anna plays really frequently? Monica could encompass all of them. I genuinely think all of them could fit into a Monica-like character. She’s scrappy as fuck (people call her scrappy on the show all the time) and I could see Anna utilizing both the “i can’t do it i don’t care” thing plus some optimism, depending on where the character is in the series. Plus, I love getting to see her comedy chops and modern day humor is waaaay drier. 

Phoebe: Janelle Monae

Admittedly, Phoebe is the one that I struggled with the most. She’s also my least favorite character of the six, so that’s probably why. But this weekend I saw Moonlight for the first time, and everytime Janelle Monae was on screen, she captivated me. I couldn’t look away from her. I would want her dialogue to be written in the same way Monae’s was in the movie. I would want it to be obvious that she came from the projects (you’ll remember that Phoebe was homeless at one point; I think maybe it might be important to show some people a more realistic representation of that type of disadvantaged situation), but she is a fully functioning and happy adult who isn’t engaged with drugs. I would love the fact that, throughout the series, Phoebe’s happiness doesn’t really come from men, it becomes with her weird, quirky, lovable self, and I think Monae would be able to portray that youthful joy but also wise maturity that Phoebe encompasses. Plus, she sings, so the music gag would be hilarious. 

Chandler: Dylan O’Brien.

This literally needs no explanation. 

Ross: Freddie Highmore

“Let’s see, who is the whitest man I can think of?” -Me, four minutes ago. I did some google searching but also realized that, if I were to rewrite Friends, I would do Ross in a different way. I started looking for a plain, average white male who I find to be likeable, and I came up with Freddie Highmore because I had a crush on him when I was little. ANYWAYS. I definitely think he encompasses that “awkward nerd who isn’t unattractive but isn’t particularly attractive” thing that Ross needs to have. I think I might shove him into glasses and make him a try-hard intellectual. He can still have the boring career that he’s super passionate about (actually, that’s one of the good things about Ross) but he would try really hard to fit into that intellectual stereotype. The other thing is that I would change the way Ross is written so that he is a more receptive character. I think the writers genuinely intended for him to be “well-meaning” and “likable,” but that it doesn’t translate in modern times. With that in mind, I would use his cluelessness as an opportunity to help viewers say how to educate people on their lack of knowledge on social issues in a productive way, and then use Ross as an opportunity to show how to receive that education (plus the clapbacks) and internalize them in ways that are also productive. 

Rachel: Karen David 

This is just really selfish because I adore Karen David and have since Galavant. I just love her and think she could play an amazing Rachel. Also I would want her to be bisexual and get frustrated at her job because she wants to bang the models. I actually kinda love the idea of Rachel running away from a wedding to a man she doesn’t love and after she spent her whole life being daddy’s little girl she’s just like “ALSO I WANT TO DATE GIRLS” and then she just goes out and does it because she’s hot and confident. She could also jam with Phoebe because Karen David has the voice of a goddamn angel. 

And now that I have finished this it occurs to me that this is one of only shows on television with three blatantly Jewish characters (Ross, Monica, Rachel) and my silly self erased my own representation. 

ANYHOO other than that I really like this :)