The Time Jennifer Aniston Went Out of Her Way — and Around Her Bodyguard — to Help an Intern

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

One man knows that Jennifer Aniston will be there for you.

The Friends star was still a rising star back in 1997 when she was generous with her time and granted a radio intern an unexpected, and surprisingly extensive, interview. That intern was Joe Pardavila, who went on to become a podcaster, an actor and now author who's dishing on his celebrity run-ins.

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Back in 1997, Pardavila visited the set of Aniston's film Picture Perfect in hopes of getting an interview with the actress.

But when her bodyguard "saw me and sensed what I was about to do," Pardavila writes in Good Listen: Creating Memorable Conversations In Business And Life, per Page Six, "he made a beeline straight for me."

"Holding up my radio mic, I said in my most soothing and innocent tone, 'Hey, I only want to ask Jennifer a couple of questions, that's all,'" Pardavila recalls.

"The guard let me know that wasn't going to happen," he reveals, deadpanning, "His tone was neither soothing nor innocent."

CJ Rivera/Getty Joe Pardavila

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But Pardavila's luck changed when the future Emmy winner had a change of heart later that day.

Aniston, now 53, had her assistant reach out to the radio station where he was interning with a make-good, telling them, "Jennifer felt badly about what happened. Better yet, she'd be happy to do an interview with the morning show."

The interview was booked, and Aniston chatted "for 20 minutes with us about the movie she was making, her time on Friends, everything you'd want to talk about with Jennifer Aniston," Pardavila wrote, according to Page Six.

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Pardavila's encounter is hardly the first time Aniston has made someone's day.

During a special appearance on YouTube's Beauty Festival last month, the actress surprised two fans at her hairstylist Chris McMillan's salon.

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And in 2020 while guest-hosting The Ellen DeGeneres Show, she also made a sentimental stop by the Central Perk set (which sits on the same Hollywood lot as the former daytime talk show) to greet unsuspecting Friends fans.

"Are you really here, is this real?" one asked — to which Aniston joked, "I live here."

When fans were asked, "Who's your favorite character?" and dared not to answer Rachel, Aniston was a good sport, telling them, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."