Exclusive 'Cake' Clip: Jennifer Aniston Talks About Taking New Creative Risks

Jennifer Aniston knows exactly what her bubbly, girl-next-door image is. But, as she told Yahoo Movies in November, her role in the upcoming indie drama Cake was a welcome opportunity to upend those expectations. “I certainly was ready and chomping at the bit for it,” she says.

Aniston has already been earning awards-season buzz for her performance in Cake, in which she plays a sarcastic woman dealing with loss and chronic physical pain. The 45-year-old actress wore no makeup for the role, except for prosthetic facial scars. In the exclusive scene above, we see Aniston’s character Claire arguing with her longtime caretaker Silvana (Adriana Barraza), as Silvana tries to nudge Claire out of her self-imposed isolation.

Below, read more of what Aniston had to say about her attention-getting role:

Your character Claire is not only grieving for a friend who’s committed suicide, but she’s also in constant physical pain. How did you get yourself into that head space?

I actually met with different doctors. I spoke to a psycho-pharmacologist, just to truly understand the medication. I spoke to my physical therapist — anybody who could understand what it is like to deal with someone who is in chronic pain.

There’s a lot of technical stuff that I wanted to lock in: I wore a brace around my waist — it was extremely uncomfortable — as a constant reminder of how not to move or how to not slouch. You see it, but it’s not something that’s featured. It was something more for me. [It was] also tracking the pain medication and how pain medication would affect someone who is in such chronic pain. She’s abusing the drugs and also mixing them with booze. It was a lot of getting the physicality down and then also understanding where she would be, truthfully, when medicated and when not medicated.

Is Claire inspired by anyone you know?

Yes, but I’m not going to say who. There’s something about Claire: She’s basically alienated herself from everybody in her life as a result of this trauma that she’s walked through, except for the beautiful Adriana Barraza who plays her angel and faithful caretaker.

Claire has this acerbic sense of humor that pops up, which I found quite endearing. Of all the experiences that she’s gone through… It was almost unimaginable to sort of figure out how to put myself in her shoes and go into that place where she was living.

I know of someone who is very similar to that, and I feel their pain. If you don’t know the person, you just think you’re walking into a nasty old bitch. But if you understand the pain that they’re coming from, you have empathy and compassion for that person.

You wore little to no makeup for this role and it’s dark emotionally — essentially the opposite of what you’re most well known for. Was that a conscious decision?

Makeup was not a conscious [decision]. That was just the byproduct of Claire and what she had been through. The minute I read this script, I was so excited for the challenge I knew this role would bring to me and the risk it would be for me.

You do get seen in a certain light, and you kind of have to fight extra hard sometimes to break out of that. People get stereotyped to some degree. What was super exciting for me was that Daniel Barnz [Cake's director] really thought it would be an interesting, unexpected choice to have me come on board to do this movie.

What are we going to see from you next?

I’m honestly just really excited to work with great directors and people that I’ve dreamed about working with and actors that I’m dying to work with. I feel like I’m having so much more fun creatively. Whether it’s Horrible Bosses — this heightened crazy comedy — and then being able to experience something as challenging as Cake.

What do you hope audiences will take away from Cake?

We all can relate to pain and loss in some form, something that takes you to your knees. You have to get back up and make the decision to move forward or continue, and it’s quite a hopeful and beautiful journey that we get to take away, that there is life after loss. There is life after great pain. You don’t have to let it take you away.

Cake is in theaters everywhere in January.