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jennifer Aniston

Former owner of the world’s most famous haircut talks donning a French maid’s outfit and trading her Central Perk buddies for Friends With Money INTERVIEW JAMES MOTTRAM


How did you find working with a writer/ director like Nicole Holofcener on Friends With Money?
I felt completely comfortable. First of all, the character was so well written and the words are so wonderful, it just felt very natural. She would just come up and her notes were so simple-she’d say, ‘Not so whiney!’

Your character, Olivia, is a maid. Do you still do your own chores?
I do! I make my bed every day and I clean my kitchen. I have a housekeeper. But I still do that. I know that may shock you!

Olivia is quite similar to your supermarket cashier character in The Good Girl , don’t you think?
Yes, she’s an unglamorous, ordinary girl who is a little bit stuck and has lost self-esteem.

What about that scene with you wearing the French maid’s outfit?
What about that, huh? I hated it- it was awful to put that thing on. It was itchy, cheap and just terrible. Everyone else got a kick out of it, though.

Was Olivia based on anyone you knew?
I have a girlfriend who I based Olivia on. Very similar. She’s younger than all of us and hasn’t hit it yet. She doesn’t know what she wants to do and isn’t in a partnership. But she’s not unhappy.

Like Olivia, have there been times when you’ve been on minimum wage?
Yeah. I was a waitress, a bike messenger…I was out of work for a long time. We’ve all been there at some point. I feel very connected to Olivia still. I absolutely had no money then. But that’s the thing-when you don’t have it, you’re really thrilled with getting $500 a week waitressing. You think that’s a lot of money. It’s all relative. Even once you start to make money, and you see how much money you can have…you still live within your means. I was never unhappy about where I was, but I definitely didn’t have as much as other people.

Did you always know you’d be successful?
I wasn’t worried about it or not worried about it…maybe because I never had any great ambition or just knew I’d always be okay. I mean I always wanted to act-and it was all I could do-and I think I just knew I would be doing it.

How long are you prepared to fight against the enormous shadow that your role as Rachel from Friends left over your career?
As long as it takes. Unfortunately there are re-runs everywhere, but I love that character. She gave me my career. And fortunately, we have directors like Nicole in the world who don’t give a shit! That baggage didn’t stop her seeing me as an actor.


Do you miss anything about episodic television?
I miss my friends and I miss acting in front of an audience. It was like every Friday was opening night. But episodic television is gruelling and it was years and years of the same thing.

Will you ever go back to television?
I really don’t think so, and not because I’m above it, but because I really don’t think I could ever top that experience.


You’ve made a lot of Hollywood movies recently, like Derailed and Rumor Has It.. What are the differences between those and something more indie like this?
There are a lot of differences-like the money! It feels more like camp. I don’t know how to explain it. It goes so fast and it’s so much more enjoyable because you don’t lull and you get to keep acting. You don’t waste time waiting for the lighting to be set. We filmed around Nicole’s relatives’ houses-our dressing room was someone’s bathroom! You do so many changes in a day and I like that speed. You’re focusing on the work, which doesn’t always get to happen unless you’re doing theatre. But I love them both-it’s like saying, ‘Which do you prefer? LA or New York?’

Given that you are regularly hounded by the paparazzi, do you ever feel like giving it all up?
No, because I love acting. I mean, sometimes it’s absolute torture and if things aren’t going right on a film I can’t help but think it’s going to be there forever. But sometimes it’s great. I have so much fun doing comedy and it’s lovely to anticipate a great scene and then know that you pulled it off.

How do you feel about the ‘chick-flick’ when applied to Friends With Money ?
I hate it. It’s really stupid.