This week, Quinta Brunson and Jennifer Aniston paired up for Variety’s Actors on Actors.
And during their conversation, things took an emotional turn when a producer off-camera told Quinta to “ask Jen” what it’s like to rewatch her sitcom, Friends, today — seemingly alluding to the death of her former castmate and close friend Matthew Perry last year.
Of course, Jen and Matthew starred together as Rachel Green and Chandler Bing in the fan-favorite NBC sitcom. Both on and off-screen, the pair shared a close friendship, with Matthew revealing in 2022 that Jen was the Friends cast member who reached out to him “the most” after the show ended in 2004.
Jen shared a touching tribute to Matthew on Nov. 15, writing: “Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply.”
“He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be,” she continued.
“For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn't hear the ‘laugh,’ he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard,” she added.
Understandably, Jennifer was left visibly emotional when a staff member off-camera suggested that Quinta ask her about rewatching Friends during their Actors on Actors conversation.
“Will you ask Jen, Quinta, what it’s like to watch Friends now?” the person off-camera said.
Both Quinta and Jen remained silent for a moment, before Jen looked at her and said, “Oh God, don’t make me cry.” Quinta replied, “I won’t... We won’t make each other cry.”
However, Jennifer’s voice began to tremble as she broke down into tears and said, “OK.”
Quinta softly said, “You’re already crying. Do you want a minute? We don’t have to talk about [this].”
With her head tilted back, Jennifer said, “No, no, sorry, I just started thinking about...” Quinta interjected and replied, “I know. Yeah.”
Quinta then asked Jennifer again if she was sure she wanted to answer the question, to which Jen insisted that she was OK, lightly quipping that her tears were “happy tears.” Quinta sat quietly while Jen wiped her eyes and collected herself before continuing the conversation.
Several internet users were left emotional by Quinta and Jennifer's sweet exchange, taking to social media to praise the Abbott Elementary star for her “kindness and respect.”
“The way Quinta took care of Jennifer when they brought up Friends, such kindness and respect,” one person commented on YouTube. “love how empathic and great quinta handled them wanting her to ask jen the question abt matthew (friends),” someone else wrote.
“Quinta’s little ‘I know’ — it was so simple but so kind and empathetic,” another user added.
“that moment showed how empathic she is, she really handled that so beautifully,” one tweet read, while some people questioned why Variety had felt the need to ask the question in the first place.
“The question was so unnecessary, like they just wanted a reaction like that. They definitely could have phrased that differently. Also the way Quinta had her back and handled the situation, her heart,” someone wrote.
“I felt so bad for both of them watching it. Jen powered through and Quinta handled it masterfully with empathy, but it felt really gross,” another user said.
“Quinta gets props for saying to Jennifer, ‘We don’t have to go there if you don’t want to.’ I get why the producers were trying to create that buzzworthy moment, but I also appreciate Quinta’s willingness to derail it for Jennifer’s sake. It’s nice to see people take care of each other like that,” one more person added on YouTube.