INT: Jennifer Aniston

Last
year, Jennifer Aniston became the World’s Most Famous Jilted Woman when
husband Brad Pitt allegedly dumped her for the globetrotting
actress/minx/Queen of Namibia Angelina Jolie. It all allegedly went down
while Aniston was filming a romantic comedy called THE
BREAK-UP (hooray for irony!), and she allegedly ended up in the arms
of co-star Vince Vaughn. And now Brad and Angelina are off forming their own
United Nations. Or something like that. Frankly, I couldn’t allegedly care
less.

Jennifer
recently stopped by the Shutters resort in

Santa Monica

for a press conference to promote THE BREAK-UP, which opens this week.
Allegedly.

Jennifer
Aniston

Did
you see your character as the good guy?

No, I think what is so well done and about how they wrote it is that no one
is really the bad guy. They are both flawed. They both have…they both sort
of fall short and that’s the problem. They fail to finally
communicate which would have evolved which would have probably solved the
problem in the first place…Let’s face it, she was the good guy. (But)
She was playing games. I guess from the beginning in the 12 lemons scene,
she’s definitely the good guy.

How
much female insight did you give on the script?

There
was definitely a lot of male energy in the script. And that was sort
of said that when I came in, that we would flesh out the female voice a bit
more.

Did
they ask you to?

Yeah,
but in way like, “We’re dudes, I don’t quite know how the female side
would respond.” [Laughs] And they were very made it so much fun
truthfully. Because it’s universal, everybody can relate to these.
It’s fun so you go back to all relationships in your life and funny
moments and things that you can apply to it. For Jeremy, the twelve
lemons argument actually happened to him. And I’m sure it’s
happened for everybody. you know, so all those things you can kind of
figure out a way to end with well.

You
proved how funny you can be in TV. How hard has it been to find movies
that allow you to be this funny?

Really
hard. Really hard. Yeah, there is just not a lot out there.
Yeah, it’s hard, because those men are such one man shows most of the
time, you know? That they don’t like to…they just don’t come
along very often. The equal male/female funny.

Did
the script tell you it would be more of an even match this time?

Oh
yeah, I knew. You see that it’s a story about two people. It was obvious,
I was thankful. It was exciting.

In
the movie you deal with Vince’s characters’ pick up line. What’s
the worst one you’ve ever been approached with?

Those
have never been cute. [Laughs] God, you know. I just have the worst
memory when it comes to that. One guy once asked me, he came up to me
and he said he liked my salad and I didn’t know what that meant. And I
said, “What do you mean my salad?” And he goes, “You know,
you’re salad. Your hair, your make up, I like your salad.” And I
went “Oh, god. That was clever.”

What
was it like working with Vince and how much of it was improv?

When
I say improvisation that was more during the rehearsal time when we were
trying to nail down specifics for Brooks kind of voice and stuff. So,
I couldn’t say which scene specifically they were in. Working with
Vince is just like working with a pro tennis player. He’s such a
professional. He’s so good at his job. He’s so funny and he’s
such a great actor, I mean aside from being comedic. For me, it was just —
you get those moments pretty rarely. You get to have those volleys
like I like to say.

Did
you have that instant rapport with him?

Yeah,
you can kind of tell pretty quickly when you work with someone that this is
going to be or this is going to be a tough one. He asks questions.
He’s interested in other people. It’s not just about him.

Could
you see the irony of starring in The Break-Up and having one at the same
time?

The
irony of it? Well, yeah, it’s pretty ironic. (Laughs).
No. You know, at the time it was something I thought about. You
know, you kind of can’t believe when I first got the call that a movie
called The Break-Up is coming. I sort of laughed and thought, “That’s
funny.” And then sure enough, it was. I kind of found it like a sign
or something to do it. Because, it was, in a way, a cathartic thing. I
felt very lucky in a way that it came to me. If this had come to me at
any other time in my life I don’t know if I would have been able to get it
for myself on that level as I would have wanted to as an actor.

The
arguments felt so real. How exhausting was that?

No,
we had a ball. I think we really had such a really strict rehearsal schedule
where we were in there for two weeks straight. We really nailed down
every scene. We walked through it, we improv’d. I mean some
scenes didn’t get touched. The twelve lemons really didn’t because
that was just kind of perfectly written. And it’s more fun than
anything, because it is so relatable and everybody is sitting there going,
“Oh my god, it always is about twelve lemons,” those are the fights that
people have. Or the silly arguments. So, it was kind of fun in
the irony of it all. It was good.

Is
Chicago your kind of town?

Yes.
It really was. I just had a ball there. There is just something about
the people. They are kind, they are respectful. It is just a
feeling. It is just a feeling, an energy when you walk through the
streets of Chicago, you just feel great. And as far as the food the
architecture, the theater the museums, you just have so much. So,
yeah. I just absolutely love it.

What
was Wrigley field like?

It
was a crowd rush, it was 1,000 degrees we were in sweaters. It was fun
just being in Wrigley field having heard so much about it and seeing old
photographs of it and when you look across the street to the tops of the
brownstones and you see all the bleachers. I guess they didn’t used
to charge people and they used to just have people stand on top of the
brownstones and then somebody got hip to it, and they said, “Well, let’s
build some bleachers” and they started charging admission. Yeah, so
it’s great.

What
kind of girl are you in reality? Do you do the dishes?

Oh
yeah, I am a little crazy about doing dishes. I definitely like a clean
kitchen before going to bed, so that is true. But doesn’t everybody?

Your
character enjoys apple martinis. What
kind of drinks do you like?

I
am a creature of habit. If I do have a cocktail it will probably be a
martini. No, just straight and dirty.

Do
you think women as a rule do too much in relationships?

Do
we do too much? Yeah, because I think it’s sort of instinctual to be the
kind of caretaker in that way in the home and the house. So, it’s
only your own fault I think in a way that you train somebody that that’s
how it is. You can’t blame somebody for not knowing what the job should be
if you don’t ask for it right off the bat.

How
do you think couples can learn the art of compromise?

Compromise
sounds like such a compromising — collaboration I would think would
be a better way. What would be the art of collaborating? I think
just talking. Saying what you need, saying what you want. So it’s not a
threat to their person, but that you’re simply saying, “this matters to
me.” I think people expect people to read minds and if your mind
doesn’t get read you get pissed off about it and than the other person
thinks “Well, I’m not gonna read your mind if you’re gonna get pissed
off about it.” It’s all just silly human games, nature.

Spoiler
ahead!!!

It
ends on a very upbeat note without them staying together. Is closure
important?

Well I would think so. I’d think that for any relationship, romantic,
friendship, anything. There should always be a sense of closure and clarity
as to why it happened so you can sort of move cleanly into your next phase.

End
of spoilers!!!

Do
you watch dailies?

Sometimes.
I don’t like to. I don’t want to get too in my head. I don’t like to
watch playback truthfully, unless it’s something specific that I want to
see. It’s kind of if I’m hitting a tone right or not.

Was
your nude scene in the original script?

Uh
uh, no, I wrote that in. [Laughs] It’s part of the improv.
I’m teasing. Luckily, I had been hitting the gym before that
already. You don’t panic that you have to be naked about your
physical shape, you just panic that you have to be naked, period.

Did
they offer you a double?

Well,
he did. I should have thought about that. Poor girl was taken advantage of.
I just sort of thought — the problem with it is because it was shot it was
so specifically me, they wanted to make it a tricky camera so you saw from
the face and go to the back so it was hard to kind of. You don’t
want to do a butt double. That’s icky.

Did
you watch those dailies?

Those
I watched. Trust me. [Laughs]

Questions?
Comments? Manifestos? Send them to me at [email protected].