Just days after winning an Emmy on Sunday, Sept. 20, Uzo Aduba played Phoebe Buffay in an all Black cast table read of an episode of Friends. The online virtual event, which served as the second episode of “Zoom Where It Happens” — “a new live table read series presented by Black women artists to raise awareness, intention and activation around voting rights” — was hosted by Gabrielle Union. And it was so funny that it made fans actually “like Ross”, who was played by This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown this time around.
Uzo and Sterling were also joined by Ryan Bathe, Aisha Hinds, Kendrick Sampson and Jeremy Pope, and they re-enacted the Season 3 Friends episode titled “The One Where No One’s Read.” In addition to Uzo playing Phoebe, Ryan portrayed Rachel Green, Aisha played Monica Gellar, Sterling played Ross Gellar, Kendrick portrayed Joey Tribbiani, and Jeremy starred as Chandler Bing.
It was a quick episode, as all of Friends‘ 236 episodes always were, but fans absolutely loved what they saw online. Especially Sterling’s portrayal as the sometimes unlikable Ross Gellar, who was played by David Schwimmer in the original series. And in case you missed it, we have a quick clip below.
“Zoom Where It Happens” launched on September 8 with an episode of Golden Girls read by an all Black cast, and the virtual series will continue with a rotating cast of actors through Election Day on Nov. 3.