Jennifer Aniston: "howl in her limousine before a red carpet, I don't know anyone in Hollywood who did not experience it"

Lola, her pseudonym on the zoom home screen, sounds like a happy omen.Lola, "lol to l.A "(" laughter in Los Angeles ")? A program in itself when one talks with the one that his" friends call Jen "(dixit his Instagram), renowned for his good -natured sarcasm, as warm in thelife that on the screen.At 10:30 a.m., time of the west coast, a slightly hoarse, inimitable voice, greets us with a sunny hello.

Since the start of the health crisis, it has been in his Villa de Bel Air, a time shared with his second ex-husband, actor Justin Theroux, that the heroine of The Morning Show (Apple TV) organizes her interviews andPhoto shootings.With the city's skyline for panorama which shaped its fate of a popular star, for the best and for the worst.Here, Jennifer Aniston feels fully at home.She passed the confinement with her dogs - Clyde, Sophie and Lord Chesterfield, whom she affectionately nicknamed "her fur family" - and a circle "close friends".

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On video, the teaser of the new series "The Morning Show"

The terms "family" and "friends" often return to conversation.And not only because like his five friends of Friends ("his second family"), the star knows how to have her career, her fortune and his notoriety at the Sitcom phenomenon of the 1990s."This is the story of a unique, non-reproducible alchemy," she says to justify the cult that the series always inspires, seventeen years after the broadcast of its ultimate episode, in 2004.Friends is the miraculous spark that transformed the life of Jennifer Aniston into a fairy tale.Overnight, the obscure theater actress, part-time waitress, subscribed to failed auditions and obscure nanars (Leprechaun, in 1993) has turned into a phenomenon.

During the ten years of the series, she was one with her alter ego, Rachel Green.His charm as "pretty girl next door", her sharp outfits, her diving square (the famous "Rachel Cup") propelled her "little fiancée de America".When the Friends star married the Hollywood star, Brad Pitt, in 2000, the media frenzy was unleashed, finding his acme at the time of their resounding divorce, five years later, after the actor's road toCrossed that of Angelina Jolie.Another soap opera then set up, to twists and turns orchestrated by the tabloids, where Jennifer Aniston was first attributed the role of sacrificial victim, then, depending on the period, that of the sad divorced without children orThe celibate assumed ... and that even if she has the box office successes (La Rupture, in 2006, Marley and I, in 2009, Murder Mystery, audience record on Netflix in 2021).

To listen to: the editorial podcast

Today, we feel the quinqua released (delivered).With The Morning Show, breathless diving behind the scenes of a prime media plagued by a #MeToo scandal, it's this past - and passive - that Jennifer Aniston jostles.Embody Alex, co-presenting of the most watched morning in the United States, in the midst of an existential crisis, turned out to be "therapeutic", she explains.On the tightrope, the actress deploys a palette of unpublished emotions, between raging explosions and poignant despair.In a word: a remarkable performance.And profitable, beyond the cachet of $ 2 million which she would have touched by episode.

The series, which she co -produced with her friend Reese Witherspoon, thus offers her the recognition she was waiting for: season 1 earned her the best criticisms of her career, an interpretation prize - respected Sag Award, of the GuildeActors - and an appointment to the Emmy Awards ... but also the recall that his rare dramatic incursions to the cinema - The Good Girl (2003), Cake (2015) - were underestimated.Season 2, available since September 17 on Apple TV, extends this momentum.Through the portrait she delivers from this media star that we think we know "just because we see her on TV every day", soon put on the touch because of her age, it is alsoHer story that she tells us for the first time: "because I was ready," she said.To (finally) move on?

Because if the collective unconscious sometimes seems to have frozen it at the beginning of the 21st century, it would quickly be forgotten that Jennifer Aniston continues to rewrite his story.The high -boring and complexed high school student has dearly won over her title of queen of the red carpets, finely done silhouette, eternally glowy and light mane complexion.She also turned into a wise producer.And the ex-New York neurotic now embodies the archetype of the Californian New Age, fond of psychotherapy, refocused by yoga and meditation-"essential to my emotional balance", she confides.The Quinqua multiplies the health contracts Healthy and has even launched Lolavie, its brand of eco -responsible and vegan hair products.

What about his romantic status?The star continues to send waltz the patriarchal archetypes."I worked too hard on my life and my career to be reduced to a sad and childless human being," she said.At 52, still single and still childless, Jennifer is resolutely at the dawn of a new chapter in her life.This "friend" which we always like to take news has given us during an exclusive interview of a rare sincerity.

Madame Figaro.-Comment Reese Witherspoon, votre co-star et productrice, vous a-t-elle convaincue de revenir à la télévision dansThe Morning Show ?
Jennifer Aniston. -Combien de fois dans une vie reçoit-on des scénarios avec deux rôles principaux de femmes puissantes ? Depuis que nous avions joué des sœurs dans Friends, nous voulions retravailler ensemble.Reese had spotted this script adapted from an investigation into the ruthless universe of American mornings, with phenomenal audiences.The book by Brian Stelter, Top of the Morning, dated from 2013, but the timing was providential because the news was hot: #MeToo scandals also exploded in this environment (Matt Lauer, the star of the Today Show, on NBC,, since, been ousted for sexual assault, editor's note).

In the first season, it was a question of managing the crisis caused by the dismissal for harassment of the presenter of the most watched morning in the country.Alex, your character, ended up denouncing the actions of her leaders herself, leaving the antenna with a crash. Où la mène cette saison 2 ?
Rongée par la culpabilité, elle s'est retirée à la campagne et travaille à ses mémoires.Forced to face his own demons, his own breaches, his regrets.The Morning Show continues to explore all the shadow areas of #MeToo and the race for audiences.On the side of victims, attackers, accomplices, cowards and less loose ... I like this uncompromising approach, which does not lack nuances.

Vous avez déclaré que c'était le rôle le plus difficile de votre carrière…
Il est d'une grande densité, éprouvant.This is one of my most gratifying projects too.Showrunner Kerry Ehrin told me a character who is not "kind" and, let's face it, rather crazy.Narcissistic, abrasive, ready to do anything to save his skin ... Like me, Alex lives under the media, paparazzi and public microscope.A celebrity which must assume its almost absence of privacy and which remains human.But the comparison stops there.If I have easy tears, I think better controls my emotions than it, fortunately!Alex is the hysterical version of many personalities from this profession, to whom we would not have learned to contain ourselves or who would no longer succeed.

In an anthology scene, Alex stings a crisis in his limousine, before a gala evening, to go out with a smile in front of the flashes of the photographers of the photographers.Later, her husband reminds her that the celebrity press has already declared it "ten times pregnant" wrongly. L'impression d'un jeu de miroirs révélateur de votre propre vie est saisissante… Un choix délibéré ?
Oui, The Morning Show s'est avéré cathartique.Relive to the screen of the sides of my reality, to show what we feel in my place ... The series was partly written by one of my oldest friends and partner of my production company, Kristin Hahn.I was confident to knowingly integrate these intimate aspects of my professional and personal experience.

The limousine scene?I do not know an actor or an actress in Hollywood who did not experience it before a red carpet.Having only one desire - howl or hide - instead of facing the cameras, the inquisitive looks ... But I also think of scenes of raw honesty, which have found Echo in everyone.You cannot imagine the number of parents who came to tell me about the moment when Alex screams to her student daughter, whom she considers unfair and ungrateful, "to go and be ...", relieved to admit that they hadlived the same thing!

Long taboo in Hollywood, the agedism doubled with sexism from which your character is more and more denounced. Avez-vous ressenti cette volonté de mise en retraite anticipée de la part des dirigeants de studios ?
Personne ne m'imposera une date d'expiration.I remain the only decision -maker of the outcome of my career.At my age (52, editor's note), I have never worked so much in inspiring projects, written, products and carried out by women, who speak of women who "come out of the frame".I started to develop it in 2006 with my production company Echo Films, like Dumplin '(Netflix), on the more size girl but fulfilled with an old beauty queen, or First Ladies (Netflix), in which J'will play half of the first lesbian couple in the White House.I fully appreciate these new opportunities, I who tend to do everything late.I do not think that women must govern the world, but it is time that we are considered the equal of men.That we finally understand that half of humanity is as important as the other.Women whose stories are told, which we recall that they are interesting, do not disappear at 35 years old.And I have the impression that this is the case for more and more actresses of my generation.

À lire aussi"Sharon Stone raconte le harcèlement sexuel qu'elle a subi à ses débuts dans le cinéma

Avez-vous été victime de harcèlement vous-même ?
Pas du genre à me retrouver enfermée dans une chambre d'hôtel avec Harvey Weinstein, Dieu merci.I have never felt this terrible threat to have me attack or exploit.But to be the target of a heavy flirt, of course.Gentlemen of the "before" generation, to whom we had not learned to behave well ... They were more ridiculed than anything else, knowing that I need a lot to feel offended.

L'attention médiatique, les rumeurs qui s'enflamment en quelques clics… Comment cette pression ne vous atteint-elle pas ?
Déjà, je sais qui je suis.What is said or published about me never makes me doubt me or my decisions.Being surrounded by "family of friends", the same since my arrival in Los Angeles, at 20, allowed me not to lose foot.A group of girlfriends that is said to themselves, with reassuring rituals.We do not spare anything, but we support ourselves.And my best defense, as soon as an intoxication is published, is to ignore it.

Dernier exemple en date ?
Suite à l'émission sur les retrouvailles de Friends, dans lequel David Schwimmer (qui interprète Ross Geller, NDLR) et moi avons avoué avoir eu un coup de cœur l'un pour l'autre au début de la série, j'ai "appris" que nous étions en couple en ce moment (Rires.) I kept receiving cryptic messages, like "I thought you were taking a break!"(Ross cult replica in Friends, editor's note), followed by "lol" ... No idea of what I was talking about!Over the years, I have learned to let the false info turn off themselves.Because this is the case, every time.

Dix-sept ans après la fin deFriends, la cote d'amour et la nostalgie que la série suscite n'ont jamais faibli. Comment expliquez-vous son statut à part dans l'histoire de la télévision et dans le cœur des fans du monde entier ?
Cet intérêt émeut encore toute l'équipe.Friends, we have experienced it in our DNA, but its success continues to intrigue us.It was so long ago!The sitcom represents the 1990s for all of us.It allowed the public to feel connected to this period of their lives, but also between them.We will never know what magic we owe it, beyond a pretty alchemy between six actors.But I think that the series illustrates a community spirit and nostalgia for a type of communication today missing.Because everyone is riveted on their phone, to exchange SMS instead of talking to each other.We hide too much, alas, behind our screens.

On video, the trailer for the "Friends" meeting episode

On comprend mieux vos réticences à rejoindre Instagram… Vous avez pourtant fini par créer votre compte fin 2019, et battu un record : un million d'abonnés en cinq heures et seize minutes ! Pourquoi avoir autant attendu ?
Par méfiance.I measured the advantages, such as that of passing messages that are close to my heart or the fun side of social networks, but also the damage that they can cause.I always worry about their harmful effects on self -esteem among preados and teenagers, at a period of your life when you are built while being in search of popularity.I think of parents: if my child does not have the right to drive before 16 years old or to drink before 21 (legal ages in the United States, note) because his capacities are not developed enough, why did heAccess to a practice likely to phagocyter body and soul?It always asks me about it, but I also started to better understand the phenomenon.

Depuis des années, on vous sait férue de yoga, de méditation transcendantale, attentive à votre santé physique comme psychique… Une incursion dans le créneau très prisé du développement personnel vous tente-t-elle ?
J'y songe, sérieusement ! En 2019, j'ai lancé une série de "salons", intitulés Jen Talks ("les conférences de Jen").Every two months, I invited around thirty friends at home to listen to experts and to debate with them: the ex-corners of CNN in the White House, Jessica Yellin, came to talk about politics;Jay Shetty, a former monk, spoke of his spiritual experience;A Havard geneticist, Professor David Sinclair, gave us longevity advice ... These discussions inspired me: why not launch a series, a podcast?Share keys accessible to everyone, to better live "the new normal" or "the world according to" this crisis ... The seed is planted, I let it germinate.

"The Morning Show", by Jay Carson, with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carrell… Seasons 1 available in Streaming on Apple TV.