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Magazine
index - Entire
Cast - Cast
members - Jennifer
Aniston - Courteney
Cox
"There was a point when I honestly did not think we would make it", she says, back in her LA home where the weather is as balmy as ever. "When we landed I cried for a solid hour, I just couldn't get out of my seat, even the pilot came to see if I was OK." She says. "Brad was on a plane to meet me, but he landed before the storm started. He was sitting there going, 'oh my God she must be a mess'. He knows how terrified I am of flying. He has always been my calming force". It was 5 years ago that her fear of flying started. Ironically when Friends was at its peak. She was dating Tate Donovan at that time, an ex of Sandra Bullock. It was at that time that I first met her in a hotel lounge in Manhattan, when she was promoting picture perfect - another thing that was going well for her. When I asked if she was afraid that everything she had might someday crumble apart, she confessed that everything was such smooth sailing that she was afraid the rug might be pulled out from underneath her. And so, poetically displacing those fears, she developed a fear of flying. "I've always thought it would all suddenly go away, I mean that's a terrible thing to admit and its something that I'm working on. I really do try to enjoy the moment. But there is that part of me that has never known how to take a compliment or how to be excited about something. Which is a shame, because one day, I'll reach the end of my life and think, why didn't I enjoy that? Was it guilt? Did I not deserve it?". Now 33, the Jennifer of today is far more sure of herself than the one at that first meeting. She strides into the suite at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills where our interview is taking place, with a purposeful and super confident air, her tiny frame dressed in cashmere hooded sweater, jeans and coral sandals. Her famous hair is familiarly poker straight, sitting just below her shoulders, awash with honey blonde, chestnut and coppery highlights. There's just a hint of makeup - mascara, blusher and rose pink lip gloss, resting on a flawless complexion. All in all, she looks, contradictory to how she insists she feels, ridiculously perfect. So far, her major fears - flying and failing - have proved unfounded. Life is as good as it gets. Along with her colleagues, she reportedly earns $1,000,000 an episode in Friends, and has recently been awarded an Emmy. Although it looks like the ninth season of friends, will sadly be the last. Her new film "The Good Girl" has justly achieved critical acclaim, and she is one half of Hollywood's most golden couple. All that without gaining a reputation for bring 'precious', that clings to so many of her peers. She is renowned for being down to earth and within minutes of meeting her, you feel like an old friend. As Lisa Kudrow has said of her "no matter what going on, she is always tuned to you," this surely is a women who has it all, although she would beg to differ. "When people say that", she says, with a crinkle of the nose, "It makes me sound like I don't know what I have which couldn't be further from the truth. I didn't grow up surrounded by wealth and I didn't have a happy family life. Gods knows, I have a happy life now...one I've worked hard for." She did however, grow up determined to follow her Father's footsteps in to acting, a choice which he tried to talk her out of, fearing she'd be 'chewed up and spat out'. She sought advice from her godfather, Kojack's Telly Savalas, who encouraged her to enroll at New York's high school of performing Arts - the real Fame school. Thereafter she embarked upon the stereotypical combination of waitressing and auditioning. Initially, the roles were fairly insignificant and scarce. But that all changed when her agent famously advised her to lose weight. After a diet and exercise regime she shed 30 pounds. Soon after, in 1994 she auditioned for the role of Monica in a new sitcom with a working title "Friend's like these." Jennifer managed to persuade the producer's that the role of Rachel would be better suited to her, and the rest is television history. Backstage, however, things were not as perfect. Her parents divorced when she was young and further devastation was to follow, when in 1996, Jennifer's mother talked about her on a chat show and thereafter published a very personal book about their relationship. Nancy was not invited to Jennifer's wedding to Brad Pitt in 2000, however, Jennifer insists that she maintains a strong support system around her - 'her very own group therapy'. "I have the most amazing group of friends who I've known for years. There are around 12 of us - no famous people - and we meet every week. I love them. If one isn't doing so well, we all rally round to rescue them. Even though we have moved on in our lives and some even have families of their own, we still keep one another together. They are my everything". Putting her own baby plans aside until the end of friends, one area that is acquiring attention in her life is the matter of finding a nesting place. After living for the past couple of years in her Hollywood Hills bungalow, using Brad's bachelor pad as an office, the couple are renovating there first home together - a $13.5,000,000 Beverly Hills mansion. One area of her life in which she remains completely secure within is her marriage. Ask her about the first time someone called her by her married name, for instance and she turns positively gooey. "I was sitting in the dentists office at seven in the morning, waiting to get my wisdom teeth pulled. All of a sudden the nurse comes out and shouts 'Mrs. Pitt?' we were both like, WOW!". She isn't concerned either about the Hollywood divorce rate. I never think, "we are going to end in seven point eight years," she says with a roll of the eyes. Sometimes celebrity couples stay together, sometimes they don't. You just try your best. I don't think it has to do with Hollywood." So what's the couples secret? "Just be sweet and honest to each other and always communicate," she says, mantra - like. "It helps that we are both actors, equally successful at what we do. We understand the pressures each of us are under. There are times you get sick of not being able to have a normal day because of all the fame stuff. We are going through the same things of any married couple...except we are in a fish bowl". It also means that every decision she makes is under scrutiny - non moreso than with her role in The Good Girl. Its her most challenging role yet. Not merely because her character is down and dowdy (-"what I look like most of the time," she laughs). The film touches on far more dark and depressing themes than we are used to seeing Jennifer take part in. "I never knew how in touch with depression I was!...I dragged up things from 20,30 years ago...although it would have been easier if I was an unknown actress in the film," she says with a relieved sigh. The film has received good reviews, with box office receipts being healthier than first anticipated. That's not to say that she gets only positive reaction from people in the street. They want her to justify herself, to explain why she is worth the life she has obtained, a question she often asks herself. "Sometimes you just don't want to be bothered. I swear, if one me person asks me 'what's so great about you?' I'll probably take them out!" She says, hitting her hand hard on the table. So, has she ever told anyone where to go? I told someone to 'F@$! off' the other day, she says, a wicked smile crossing her face. "I'm allowed that aren't I?". Maybe the good girl isn't so good after all...
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