Jennifer Aniston says she can do more than “that rom-com girl-next-door thing”
Last week, we covered the first excerpts from Jennifer Aniston’s Elle Magazine cover profile. It wasn’t a traditional cover story, though – Aniston was chosen as the cover girl for the “Women In Hollywood” issue, which… I disagree with. I disagree with using Aniston as the de facto poster girl for a successful women in Hollywood. It’s not that she’s NOT successful in a financial sense (she is), and she’s definitely one of the few women who producers consider “able to open” (although she has difficulties opening without a strong male lead). But in a magazine issue where you’re trying to celebrate the achievements of interesting, diverse, talented ladies, I just think there are much better potential cover girls to choose from. Think of the ladies who have turned in stunning, award-winning work this year. Kate Winslet. Mia Wasikowska. Viola Davis. Evan Rachel Wood. Claire Danes. But I digress…
So, Aniston and the excerpts. Everyone paid attention to her comments on babies – “There’s no desperation. If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. I’m at peace with whatever the plan is. But will you hate me if I say I don’t want to talk about my relationship?” But there are more gems in the print interview:
On the Horrible Bosses script and typecasting: “My jaw dropped. I thought ‘Wow. What took so long?’ I’ve been categorized as that rom-com girl-next-door thing. But we’re actors. If given the chance, we can pull some other stuff off.”
On the tabloids: “I remember being on the cover of Us Weekly – willingly! Not with my head stuck next to somebody else’s going, Jen Versus so-and-so! Rage! Scandal! Bullsh-t!”
Advice to her younger self: “Stop taking everything so seriously. Stop being so sensitive. [That changed for me] probably about six, seven years ago. It’s the moment you come from the ashes and go, This is nothing.”
On The Break-up: “It was summer in Chicago – happy, happy times. I look at this picture and think of marriage. How many times have you been in a relationship when nobody is budging?”
On her most surreal Hollywood moment: “I’ve had many. I’ve been lucky. But I would have to say it was meeting Sophia Loren backstage at the Oscars. That was a pretty good one. I was like Cindy Brady in that Brad Bunch episode where she was on the game show and she just stared at that red light.”
Was there a role she fought for but didn’t win? “I’ve lost all the battles that I fought for.”
Did she have regrets when she saw someone else in the role? “No, I sat there and went, ‘That actually was better that way.’”
On a time when she stood up to a male director: “I threw a chair at a director. It wasn’t my proudest moment. He was treating a script supervisor horribly… When the director walked in, I threw a chair at him. I missed, of course. I was like, ‘You can’t speak to people like that.’ I can’t tolerate it.”
[From Elle Magazine, print edition]
I found her comments about Horrible Bosses interesting – “I’ve been categorized as that rom-com girl-next-door thing. But we’re actors. If given the chance, we can pull some other stuff off.” That’s always the hit against Aniston, that she rarely breaks out of the rom-com mold. On this, I’ll defend her slightly: Audiences tend to actively dislike films where she tries to do something different. Remember that one she did with Clive Owen, where she was, like, the femme fatale? Hardly anyone bought it. But Horrible Bosses did okay, and maybe she’ll be doing more of that.
Oh, by the way – she’s not pregnant. Us Weekly had a story yesterday about Aniston and Theroux partying with the SNL cast over the weekend, and they said that Jennifer was drinking Grey Goose. So… she’s still getting her drink on, and there’s no BABY. You can read the piece here – there’s a mention of how “cute” she and Justin are together, and how he’s a “complete gentleman”. Because those are the new keywords that her publicist drops into every report these days.
Photos courtesy of Elle (via The Fashion Spot) and WENN.
