Jennifer Aniston Describes Letting Herself Go for Her Least Glamorous Role Yet
By Julie Miller
Toronto Film Festival correspondent Richard Lawson reported back to us about the actors up north who are making waves with their impressive dramatic resurgences—Al Pacino, Keira Knightley, and Reese Witherspoon among them. And now, it seems, that we have another actress to add to that list—Jennifer Aniston, who received a standing ovation after last night’s premiere of Cake, an indie drama in which the Friends alum plays a woman suffering from chronic pain.
Deadline’s Pete Hammond was so impressed by the actress’s transformation—which has Aniston eschewing makeup for prosthetic scars, a back brace, and a serious chip on her shoulder—that he suggested Cake could be the actress’sMonster or Monster’s Ball. And during a press conference today, Aniston told reporters how much she relished making a rare detour into such gritty dramatic terrain.
“It actually was extremely liberating,” Aniston said. Speaking about going sans makeup, she explained, “As women, we do feel that we have to live up to an expectation whether it is on camera or going to the market or whatever it is. The truth of the matter is that that is not always the way it is. We don’t always have our high heels on. We don’t always have our hair and makeup on. And this character is basically someone who had just given up, just on even waking up sometimes.”
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To prep for the role, Aniston spent six weeks figuring out her character’s physicality by speaking to an array of sources including friends who had suffered from similar conditions, psychopharmacologists, and different doctors. And when it was time to begin filming, the Smartwater spokesperson ditched her regular yoga and workout routines to wholly embody her caustic character’s inert lifestyle.
“There was not a lot of home time,” Aniston told press. “So I was pretty much going home, going to sleep… I didn’t do anything physically… I pretty much let myself fall apart physically and that was really important for me.”
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Speaking of on and off-screen parallels, there is apparently a moment in the film that played to great laughs during the premiere. During the scene, Aniston’s hopeless and hardened character bluntly advises an aspiring actress against her career route because of the sadness that accompanies that chosen profession. When asked by a reporter today about the saddest time in her own career, Aniston reached deep into her IMDB skeleton closet to find a fitting and witty response.
“I did do a Bob’s Big Boy commercial,” Aniston volunteered. “That was pretty tragic.”
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