Who knew the most emotionally devastating moment we’ve ever seen in an Actors on Actors video would be a chat between comic geniuses about sitcoms?
That’s exactly what happened when Quinta Brunson and Jennifer Aniston were paired for the Variety interview series. Quinta didn’t even ask the question — just the thought of rewatching Friends after the shocking death of Matthew Perry had Jen losing it.
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The moment begins when producers tell them from off-camera:
“Will you ask Jen, Quinta, what it’s like to watch Friends now?”
Jen immediately wells up, then pleads with Quinta:
“Oh god, don’t make me cry.”
Quinta clearly has no intention of pushing this. She tells Jen, “I won’t,” then offers:
“Do you want a minute? We don’t have to talk about…”
Jen looks up to try not to ruin her makeup — and even apologizes for the outburst:
“I’m sorry, I just started thinking about…”
Quinta compassionately interrupts her, saying:
“I know.”
The way the Abbott Elementary star guided them around the subject of Matty’s death. Wow. She asks again if the Good Girl star is “sure” she wants to go near the subject, tells her, “We don’t have to.” Eventually Jennifer gets a tissue and pulls herself together. She’s a professional, after all. She even tells a story about going with Matthew to mess with Lisa Kudrow on the day of the Friends series premiere. But wow, what a blow in the moment it comes. You can see for yourself starting about 31:45 (below):
The thing is, Jen’s sudden reaction — and Quinta’s unwillingness to prod — meant in order for any of that to make any sense, they had to leave in the producer asking the question for context — something you basically never see in these videos. They don’t want you to see how the sausage is made, this is supposed to be two actors just curious about one another’s work.
But this time, everyone knows who asked that question — and they have opinions about it. To be clear, there was talk of Friends before that moment, obviously you can’t have two sitcom stars not both talking about their sitcoms. But that exact question? Commenters seeing the clip on social media blasted producers for preying on Jen for clicks — and praised Quinta for showing such kindness. See some of the strongest reactions (below):
“Jesus Christ this is ghoulish. Good on Quinta for not pushing”
“‘What’s it like watching something you made with your bestfriends, since one of your best friends recently died?’ Is insanely unnecessary.”
“Poking at something that raw for clicks..good for Quinta for clocking that this wasn’t the time”
“Willing to bet money that Variety producer has worked in reality TV…”
“that producer knew exactly what they were doing, they were trying to get that buzzworthy moment and It’s only been like a little over 6 months. Quinta is such a sweetheart for being protective of her there”
“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. This was a charming pairing.”
“‘I won’t’ Quinta is a f**king angel, she’s too good for this industry”
“Genuinely thankful for Quinta for the way she handled this, and just by hearing her speak you know how empathetic she is as a person. I just love her a lot more now”
What do YOU think of Variety pushing for this question? Was it malicious? Or do you think Jen’s reaction surprised everyone?
[Image via Variety/Warner Bros/YouTube.]
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