Jennifer Aniston paid tribute to Dolly Parton during a rare public appearance with boyfriend Jim Curtis at The 92nd Street Y in New York City on Wednesday, September 2, sharing a piece of advice her late friend and collaborator once gave her.
The event was held to celebrate the release of Curtis’s new book, The Book of Possibility, but when an audience member asked Aniston for the best advice she could offer, she turned instead to something Parton had told her.
“It’s real. … We’re all in post-Parton, aren’t we?” Aniston said, before recalling one of Parton’s favourite sayings, “One of her many, many, many, many incredible quotes, and they’re endless, endless, endless, she would say, ‘I chased a few rainbows and I caught some.’ I would say, go chase your dreams and go catch some rainbows.”
She added, reflecting on Parton’s own life as proof of the advice’s power, “You’ll catch a few. [Dolly] did that, for sure.”
Aniston and Parton first worked together on the 2018 film Dumplin’, in which Aniston starred as a former beauty pageant queen and produced the project, while Parton contributed original music to the soundtrack, including the Grammy- and Golden Globe-nominated song Girl in the Movies with Linda Perry.
Their friendship extended well beyond the film, Aniston has said she was already a devoted fan of Parton’s before the movie came together, having even named one of her dogs after the singer, and the two reportedly first bonded over dinner at Aniston’s home, where Parton asked to meet her canine namesake in person.
Their creative connection had continued more recently through Aniston’s planned remake of 9 to 5, which she’s producing through her company Echo Films with Diablo Cody writing the screenplay, before her death, Parton had read the script and voiced her public support for the new take on the 1980 workplace comedy that marked her own film debut.
Parton died August 25 at age 80.
Her team confirmed at the time that she passed at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones.
Her death has prompted an outpouring of tributes across the entertainment industry in the days since.
