Entertainment TV The Time Jennifer Aniston Went Out of Her Way — and Around Her Bodyguard — to Help an Intern A former fledgling reporter recalls the time the Friends star granted him an against-the-odds interview By Stephanie Wenger Stephanie Wenger Instagram Twitter Stephanie Wenger is a TV Writer/Reporter at PEOPLE. She joined the brand in 2021 as digital news writer, spanning across the site's verticals. She previously contributed to E! Online, HollywoodLife, Discover Los Angeles, Oscar.com and Hollywood.com. She appeared on air at AfterBuzz TV. She began her journalism career as an intern at Good Morning America and Access Hollywood. She graduated from Boston University with a Bachelor's in communications and received a Master's in journalism from the University of Southern California. People Editorial Guidelines Published on July 6, 2022 05:51 PM Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: 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. Jennifer Aniston Surprises 2 Fans at Her Hairstylist's Salon — and Talks 'The Rachel' Haircut 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." Joe Pardavila. CJ Rivera/Getty Jennifer Aniston Honors Her Dad John Aniston as He Earns Daytime Emmys Lifetime Achievement Award 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. Ellentube 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'ssalon. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free weekly newsletter to get the biggest news of the week delivered to your inbox every Friday. 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."