Kathleen revealed: “At the time, one of the co-creators of Friends, we were doing a show based on Tallulah Bankhead,
“He came up to see the show in San Francisco and came backstage and said ‘you have to play Chandler’s dad’ and I thought, ‘okay, a woman playing a man playing a woman. I haven’t done that’. So I said ‘yes’.”
While the character’s identity was not clearly defined throughout the show Helena was largely referred to with male pronouns, which has caused controversy with modern fans.
Co-creator Marta Kauffman has since confirmed that the character Helena was a transgender woman.
