Actress Jane Sibbett played a lesbian on ‘Friends.’ The part turned her life upside down.

“It became apparent soon after [beginning to play Carol] there was suddenly a responsibility about being able to stand up against all of the people that were saying this was wrong, including my own father who had a really hard time with that. I was going toe to toe with people on talk shows in America, who were saying, you know, this and this and this is the reason why you shouldn’t be doing this. I would have to break things down for them. And I felt like it was really important for me to be super clear; love is the most important, of all the things that we could possibly do love is the most important way forward from anybody. So, that was my biggest responsibility, to make sure that people knew that.”—Friends regular Jane Sibbett, telling Now To Love how playing a lesbian character on the show invited unexpected backlash. Friends came under fire at the time for including a recurring lesbian couple on the series. The show has endured criticism in recent years for tone-deaf humor around LGBTQ characters.