{"id":2080670,"date":"2025-10-10T00:11:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:11:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2080670"},"modified":"2025-10-10T00:11:46","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:11:46","slug":"jennifer-aniston-on-fame-freedom-and-false-narratives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/jennifer-aniston-on-fame-freedom-and-false-narratives\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Aniston on fame, freedom and false narratives"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cI am very camera-shy,\u201d says Jennifer Aniston<\/a>, in what is a rather surprising confession for someone who has spent most of her life in front of one. \u201cI\u2019m not a model\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Aniston is, I find when I meet her at her gated mansion in Los Angeles\u2019 starry Bel-Air district, a curious mix of the familiar and the unexpected. There is her voice and her perfect comic delivery, so recognisable from her decades on Friends<\/a><\/em>; her body, as svelte and toned as it appears on screen; and the easy likeability that makes her such a natural at the girl-next-door role into which she has often been typecast. Although she claims to be uncomfortable being photographed, she is a relaxed interviewee, articulate and well-practised. At moments, however, she catches me off guard with a trenchant remark (about, say, her antipathy towards social media) or an unsolicited confession; on several occasions, she brings up subjects \u2013 therapy, infertility, her struggle to be taken seriously \u2013 that I had expected to be off-limits. Partly, she tells me, she has simply stopped worrying about how her words will be interpreted by the press. \u201cThe older I get, the less I care about correcting a narrative, because it will happen eventually,\u201d she tells me, adopting a yogic seated pose on the floor in front of the sofa, casually chic in jeans and a tank top. \u201cThe news cycle is so fast, it just goes away. Of course, there are times when I feel that sense of justice \u2013 when something has been said that isn\u2019t true and I need to right the wrong. And then I think, do I really? My family knows my truth, my friends know my truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Wool dress, GIVENCHY BY SARAH BURTON. White gold and diamond earrings, HANUT SINGH. White gold, diamond and emerald necklace, from a selection; gold ring (left hand), both CARRERA Y CARRERA. Silver and diamond ring, LOREE RODKIN. Rose and white gold and black diamond ring (right hand), KALLATI. Mesh and leather boots, ALEV\u00cd MILANO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

The \u201ctruth\u201d about Aniston\u2019s private life \u2013 most famously, the very public breakdown of her relationship with Brad Pitt back in 2005 and her subsequent three-year marriage to Justin Theroux, which ended in 2018 \u2013 has been the target of relentless media speculation, often overshadowing her professional achievements. Yet throughout it all, she has quietly continued to prove herself as an actress with projects that speak for themselves. We are here today to talk about what is perhaps the crowning glory of her career so far: the latest season of The Morning Show<\/a><\/em>, of which she and her close friend Reese Witherspoon are both stars and executive producers. \u201cWe started out as innocent children on Friends<\/em>,\u201d she says, referencing the two episodes in which Witherspoon played Rachel Green\u2019s younger sister Jill, \u201cand we always said we\u2019d love to collaborate on something\u201d. When they read the script for The Morning Show<\/em>, which dramatises life behind the scenes of a morning-news programme and confronts the topic of workplace sexual harassment, they saw their opportunity to work together. The material resonated with Aniston, who had been a producer for a long time, initially as one of the co-founders of Plan B Entertainment alongside Pitt (he became the sole owner of the company after their divorce) and thereafter as the joint owner of Echo Films with her producing partner Kristin Hahn. \u201cI got a lot of pats on the head \u2013 a lot of, \u2018Oh, aren\u2019t you sweet?\u2019 \u2013 before I was shuffled delicately to the side,\u201d she says of pitching ideas for production. It was enough to make her aware of \u201cthe toxicity behind the scenes, the abuse of power and how women were pitted against one another\u201d in film and television.<\/p>\n

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What to Read Next<\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<\/section>\n
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\"jennifer<\/p>\n
Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Jersey dress, BALENCIAGA. Wool hat, JANESSA LEON\u00c9. Gold cuffs, TIFFANY & CO. White gold and diamond ring (left hand), DIOR JOAILLERIE. Gold and diamond ring, VAN CLEEF & ARPELS. Gold ring (right hand), CARRERA Y CARRERA. Satin platforms, NINA RICCI<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

The Morning Show<\/em> has been rightly lauded for its uncanny ability to foreshadow world events. One season features an Elon Musk-esque tech billionaire who sends Witherspoon\u2019s character into space in a scene that calls to mind Lauren S\u00e1nchez Bezos\u2019 crass publicity stunt earlier this year. \u201cI swear there\u2019s a crystal ball in our writers\u2019 room,\u201d says Aniston. \u201cThey\u2019re ahead of everything.\u201d She plays the veteran journalist Alex Levy \u2013 a figure who is both a pillar of strength and emotionally vulnerable \u2013 with confidence and sensitivity, earning widespread acclaim and, in 2020, a Screen Actors Guild award. The parallels between the actress and her character are impossible to miss; in fact, at times, it is hard to remember that Levy is not simply a mouthpiece for Aniston, especially when she talks about wanting a relationship with someone she can trust. \u201cWe\u2019re both in the public eye. We have both lived under a microscope. We both understand the male-dominated industry,\u201d Aniston acknowledges. \u201cBut I don\u2019t, for instance, have Alex\u2019s ability to rage. I love the scenes when Bradley [Witherspoon\u2019s character and her co-anchor on the show] and I just blow up at each other, because I don\u2019t do that. I\u2019ve had too much therapy to know you don\u2019t get anything accomplished that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Friends<\/em> completely formed who I was. It was pure joy. I looked forward to it every day”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The therapy she talks about has helped her unravel some of the complexities of a childhood that, by her own admission, wasn\u2019t always easy. A native Angeleno who grew up in New York after her family moved there, she suffered the consequences of her parents\u2019 separation when she was nine. \u201cTheir divorce was not amicable in any way, shape or form, and it was a time when there wasn\u2019t a lot of awareness of how to behave for the sake of the kid,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThat was the least of [my parents\u2019] worries \u2013 it was more, how could they hurt each other? And I was just a pawn.\u201d At the same time, she says that her mother and father were \u201cridiculously funny people\u201d and that she was \u201caround a lot of laughter\u201d. Comedy became a source of comfort to her: initially to watch on television, and later as her acting specialism. She found her vocation at a young age and enrolled in a dedicated performing-arts school in Manhattan, after which her career got off to a slow start, with minor roles in various overlooked television shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Then everything changed overnight when she was cast in Friends<\/em>, whose pilot episode aired in 1994. The response to the show was rapturous \u2013 a fact that, looking back, does not surprise Aniston in the least. \u201cThere\u2019s something about the chemistry of the cast that made for a lightning-in-a-bottle moment,\u201d she reflects, \u201cand that just happened to get caught on camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Silk and lace dress, SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO. Wool hat, JANESSA LEON\u00c9. White and yellow gold and diamond ring (left hand), CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY. Gold and diamond bracelet, 11 JULLIET. White gold, diamond and emerald ring (right hand, top), BULGARI. White gold and diamond ring, LOREE RODKIN<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Indeed, she is charmingly nostalgic about her experience on the programme. I approach the subject cautiously in the first instance, as some actors dislike being asked to dwell on old roles when they are trying to promote new projects, but Aniston clearly views that period of her life as a wellspring of precious memories. \u201cIt completely formed who I was,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was pure joy. I looked forward to it every day. I couldn\u2019t wait to get to work. I couldn\u2019t wait to see those people. I couldn\u2019t wait to read the scripts \u2013 we\u2019d shoot the show every Friday night, and right after we wrapped, we\u2019d find the new script for Monday morning in our dressing-room. I was just as excited to find out what was going to happen as I\u2019m sure the audience was.\u201d The cast were, and still are, famously close-knit, even banding together to ensure that each of them was paid the same salary (\u201cThere\u2019s nothing stronger than the power of six people demanding the same thing\u201d). She mentions that she met up with both Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow only a few weeks ago for dinner. \u201cI know that if I needed anything, I\u2019d go direct to the chain we have together and they\u2019d be there for me in two seconds flat,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was like we married each other \u2013 they\u2019re my family. Sometimes you love to hate your family, but it\u2019s a lifetime commitment, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

One member of that on-screen family was lost to them when Matthew Perry, who played the fan favourite Chandler Bing, died in 2023 from accidental drowning following a ketamine overdose \u2013 the culmination of a decades-long battle with depression. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking that he had so many demons,\u201d says Aniston quietly. \u201cBut boy, for someone who had that much inner turmoil, he sure got to laugh a lot, and that was everything to him.\u201d She is adamant that, without Perry, there is no world in which there would ever be a Friends <\/em>remake or sequel (\u201cIt would be literally, physically impossible\u201d), but it means a lot to her that a new generation of viewers have embraced the show, for all its anachronistic flaws. \u201cPeople will say that they go back and watch episodes to help their mental health \u2013 that if they\u2019re stressed about the news or the world, they\u2019ll just sit down and watch a Friends<\/em> episode. And that\u2019s the ultimate compliment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Wool coat, FENDI. Beige gold and diamond rings (right hand), CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY. White gold and diamond ring, LOREE RODKIN. White gold and diamond ring (left hand); rose gold and aventurine necklace, both VAN CLEEF & ARPELS. Velvet boots, CASADEI. Faux-fur hat, stylist\u2019s own<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Although Aniston sees only positives in the show\u2019s staying power today, there must have been a time in her life when the difficulty of shedding her Rachel Green mantle was a source of frustration. She was so perfectly Rachel \u2013 whose legacy lives on in the layered, shoulder-length haircut of the same name<\/a> \u2013 that casting directors repeatedly tried to assign her similar parts. \u201cI understand and I don\u2019t blame them,\u201d she tells me, graciously. \u201cUntil I could show I was able to do something other than that, why would they take my word for it and hire me blindly? In my heart, I believed I could.\u201d Her performance in the 2002 drama The Good Girl<\/em> was a turning point, bringing her recognition as an actress who could take on tougher challenges: \u201cIt was like a card, a currency I could use to get more serious parts.\u201d She went on to appear in films that showed her ability to act against type, playing a sexually predatory dentist in the hilarious, if imperfect, Horrible Bosses<\/em> film and its sequel (2011 and 2014), a woman in chronic pain in Cake<\/em> (2014) and the insensitive mother of an overweight teenager in Dumplin\u2019<\/em> (2018), for which she drew on her personal experience of a complicated maternal relationship. The latter two projects were made through her production company, which has enabled her to tell female-centric stories that deserve to be broadcast.<\/p>\n

She is broadly optimistic about the state of the film industry for women today, particularly in terms of the prevalence of successful older actresses. \u201cThe societal idea of an expiration date just doesn\u2019t exist anymore \u2013 it\u2019s an old ideology. We\u2019re here and we\u2019re more than half the population\u2026 and would any of you schmucks be here if it weren\u2019t for us anyway?\u201d she adds, sounding for a moment like one of her gutsy on-screen alter egos. \u201cThe wisdom older women have to contribute is quite extraordinary, and it\u2019s one of the areas where we\u2019ve seen genuine progress in the film world.\u201d I suggest that she herself is a trailblazer in this regard, and she immediately bats away the compliment \u2013 \u201cI\u2019m not going to take credit for blazing anything!\u201d \u2013 before correcting herself. \u201cReese, Nicole, Julianne, Sandy [Sandra Bullock]\u2026 All of these women who have been here, and are still here, have been examples of what we are capable of. So if we are trailblazers, I will gladly wear that with honour.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Wool coat, FENDI. Beige gold and diamond rings (right hand), CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY. White gold and diamond ring, LOREE RODKIN. White gold and diamond ring (left hand); rose gold and aventurine necklace, both VAN CLEEF & ARPELS. Velvet boots, CASADEI. Faux-fur hat, stylist\u2019s own<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

She has also led the way in opening up a conversation about how female celebrities are treated by the media, particularly when it comes to very personal reproductive choices. Aniston was, for the best part of two decades, the subject of constant media scrutiny about whether she was, was not or would not become pregnant, with rumours abounding that her divorce from Pitt came about because she was prioritising her career over having a child. In fact, she had privately been going through IVF, which was ultimately unsuccessful. For a long time, she stayed silent, not wanting to fuel the flames of the debate, but in 2016, she finally decided enough was enough, and wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post<\/em> speaking out against the insensitive behaviour of the mainstream media. \u201cThey didn\u2019t know my story, or what I\u2019d been going through over the past 20 years to try to pursue a family, because I don\u2019t go out there and tell them my medical woes,\u201d she says, switching into the present tense as if reliving the pain afresh. \u201cThat\u2019s not anybody\u2019s business. But there comes a point when you can\u2019t not hear it \u2013 the narrative about how I won\u2019t have a baby, won\u2019t have a family, because I\u2019m selfish, a workaholic. It does affect me \u2013 I\u2019m just a human being. We\u2019re all human beings. That\u2019s why I thought, \u2018What the hell?\u2019\u201d She spoke on behalf of others in her situation, \u201cbecause I knew a lot of women at the time who were trying to have kids, who were dealing with IVF. So it did feel like it was not only for myself, but for any women who were struggling with the same issue\u201d. While she is grateful that tabloid culture, and the days of the \u201ccircle of shame\u201d, is now less powerful, she worries that the cruelty that once lived on the pages of magazines and newspapers has simply moved into the shadowy world of social media. \u201cSo now any schmuck can stay anonymous and write whatever the hell they want to write\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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“The societal idea of an expiration date for women just doesn\u2019t exist anymore \u2013 it\u2019s an old ideology”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Her concerns about the dominance of technology in our society are strongly felt, and reflected in the themes of the new season of The Morning Show<\/em>, which is in post-production when we speak. There is a storyline about Aniston\u2019s character being the victim of impersonation using a deepfake \u2013 something that she says happens to her in real life with some frequency. \u201cI catch things all the time, or friends send me things saying, \u2018I don\u2019t think this is you\u2019, or \u2018I don\u2019t think you\u2019re advertising this\u2019, and I\u2019ll send it to my lawyers so they can do a cease-and-desist. It\u2019s just such a runaway train,\u201d she says of the growth of AI. \u201cBig tech, it\u2019s crazy\u2026\u201d She is especially anxious about the lack of regulation around young people\u2019s use of social media. \u201cI\u2019m sure the guys who came up with it thought it was a great idea and, yeah, congratulations on your billions, but it has taken down a huge portion of humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Wool coat, FENDI. Beige gold and diamond rings (right hand), CHANEL FINE JEWELLERY. White gold and diamond ring, LOREE RODKIN. White gold and diamond ring (left hand); rose gold and aventurine necklace, both VAN CLEEF & ARPELS. Gold and diamond bracelet (worn as anklet), 11 JULLIET. Velvet boots, CASADEI<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

The frustration she feels about how much space in our lives technology takes up (\u201cIf you\u2019re at a restaurant, people\u2019s attention span is so limited that there\u2019s always some form of checking your phone\u201d) means that she places even more value on in-person connections. She is fiercely loyal to her friends, including the women she lived with when she first moved to LA as part of a bohemian community in Laurel Canyon. They come to Aniston\u2019s Bel-Air home regularly to maintain her tradition of Sunday-night dinners \u2013 \u201cburgers and a salad, or sometimes we do Mexican\u201d \u2013 and catch up on one another\u2019s news. \u201cThey\u2019re wonderful, kind, funny people, and it\u2019s a good belly-laugh day of the week,\u201d she says. She also has a number of strong male friendships, notably with the actor Adam Sandler, with whom she has co-starred in several films. \u201cThat\u2019s a guy who would lie down on the tracks for me,\u201d she says. Feminism, for Aniston, is about solidarity and presenting a united front. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean the exclusion of men, or that men suck. It\u2019s about women wanting to come to the party, to be at the table,\u201d she says. \u201cBut we need men too. Men and women need each other. It\u2019s a wonderful collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aniston leads a full and busy life, starting every day with her famously rigorous fitness routine (she has a partnership with Pvolve, which combines strength training with pilates-style sculpting). She divides her time between acting projects and running her various businesses, which include her haircare brand LolaVie and a role as chief creative officer for the collagen-supplements company Vital Proteins. When we speak, she is shortly due to spend three months in New York filming the new Apple TV+ series I\u2019m Glad My Mom Died<\/em>, inspired by Jennette McCurdy\u2019s memoir of the same name. Also in the works is a project by her producing partner Hahn, who belongs to her Laurel Canyon friendship group, that is loosely based on that formative period of their lives. Finally, Aniston harbours a dream of performing on stage on Broadway. \u201cI haven\u2019t done theatre yet because it terrifies me, but it\u2019s the one thing I haven\u2019t tried besides make an album, which I doubt I\u2019ll do!\u201d she says. \u201cBut I grew up in New York and loved going to the theatre, so I think it\u2019d be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption>

Silk dress, LOUIS VUITTON. Leather gloves, SEBASTIAN GUNAWAN. Mesh and leather boots, ALEV\u00cd MILANO<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

Until then, there are her beloved dogs \u2013 Lord Chesterfield, a labrador retriever, and Clyde, a schnauzer mix \u2013 to look after (both are with us on the sofa throughout the interview, and Aniston interrupts herself regularly to address affectionate coos in their direction). Then there is her rumoured relationship with Jim Curtis, a hypnotist and wellness expert, with whom she has been romantically linked since the summer; the pair have been pictured on a double date at Nobu in Malibu with Courteney Cox and her boyfriend, and spotted together on a yacht in Mallorca. When we meet, she is about to head off with friends on a short break to London, a city she has loved ever since she travelled there to film the infamous Friends<\/em> episodes, broadcast in 1998, that narrate Ross\u2019 doomed wedding to Emily, played by Helen Baxendale. She points to a small drawing of a skeleton on the wall of her living-room, telling me she picked it up on a shopping trip with her castmates while they were there on location all those years ago. It\u2019s as fresh in her mind now as it remains to all of us \u2013 a show that, like Jennifer Aniston herself, continues to entrance us. <\/p>\n

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Emma Summerton<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

This story originally appears in the November 2025 issue of Harper\u2019s Bazaar \u2013 out now.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

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