diff --git a/rasa/core/actions/action.py b/rasa/core/actions/action.py
index dc1607720ac9..93e548e66d4b 100644
--- a/rasa/core/actions/action.py
+++ b/rasa/core/actions/action.py
@@ -95,8 +95,9 @@ def combine_user_with_default_actions(user_actions: List[Text]) -> List[Text]:
     # implicitly assume that e.g. "action_listen" is always at location
     # 0 in this array. to keep it that way, we remove the duplicate
     # action names from the users list instead of the defaults
-    unique_user_actions = [a for a in user_actions if a not in default_action_names()]
-    return default_action_names() + unique_user_actions
+    defaults = default_action_names()
+    unique_user_actions = [a for a in user_actions if a not in defaults]
+    return defaults + unique_user_actions
 
 
 def combine_with_templates(