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Jennifer Aniston knows a thing or two
about breaking up — and not just
because she’s headlining a new film
called “The Break-Up.” Unless
you’ve been living under a rock, you
know that Aniston’s real life marriage to
Hollywood heartthrob Brad Pitt ended last
year. All the gossip rags have their own view
on why the marriage crumbled — ‘Aniston
didn’t want kids’ is a big one — but most
agree infidelity played a large role. When
rumors that Pitt was kanoodling with “Mr.
and Mrs. Smith” co-star Angelina Jolie turned
out to be true — in fact, the two just had a
baby daughter, Shiloh — “Brangelina” was
born and Aniston was baptized the victim.
But Aniston in no way views herself that
way. “Don’t feel sorry for me. Don’t make me
your victim,” she told Vogue in its April issue.
“I don’t want it. I’m so tired of being part of
this sick, twisted Bermuda Triangle… All I can
do is go on and live my life.”
With her “Friends” days well behind her,
Aniston seems focused on big screen success
— but she needs a hit. Though “Along Came
Polly” and “Bruce Almighty” were smashes,
solo comedic vehicles like “Rumor Has It” and
the dramatic “Derailed”— unchartered territory
for Aniston — flopped. It seems that
Aniston has figured out that she needs a funny
man to play off her funny girl, and thus, “The
Break-Up.”
Co-starring Vince Vaughn, who’s also a coproducer
and co-writer, “The Break-Up” depicts
the disintegration of a relationship, and
how the two people involved pick up the pieces
and move on with their sanity intact. For
Aniston, getting a script called “The Break-
Up,” after all she’d endured with Pitt, was a bit
of a surprise.
“When it came to me, at the time it came to
me… Honestly, I thought they were kidding,”
Aniston says. “I mean, it’s called ‘The Break-
Up.’ But then I realized it was fantastically
written, and it was smart and funny and real.
Plus, I would be in Chicago for two months…”
Aniston not only fell in love with the city —
“the people are so kind there,” she says — but
with her co-star as well.
“Chemistry is just one of those things that’s
instant,” Vaughn says. “We were lucky. I knew
right away, when were improvising and doing
scenes with each other, that we had a great
banter and a great rapport.”
Aniston attributes Vaughn’s participation as
one of the major reasons she decided to do the
film. Working with Vaughn “elevated me to a
new level,” she says.
Vaughn agrees: “She came in, and had a lot
of great ideas for the character. She really
brought the character to a new level.”
But is it any wonder that Aniston would
have so much of herself to contribute? After
all, in Vaughn’s words, “The Break-Up” really
shows how, “if you don’t honor and appreciate
a relationship, you can do damage to it.”
Aniston certainly understands that.
“We believe in different things, I guess,”
Aniston said, of her marriage to Pitt, in that
now infamous September 2005 Vanity Fair
cover story. “You can’t force a relationship,
even if it’s your view of how you would like it
to be conducted. Obviously, two people leave a
relationship because there’s a different thought
pattern happening.”
That viewpoint might just be why Vaughn
says he always had Aniston in mind for his little
romantic comedy with a twist.
“As we were writing the screenplay [for
“The Break-Up”], she was the only person we
had in mind,” Vaughn says. “Jennifer has a
very genuine quality to her. There’s something
about her that makes her very ‘rootable.’Audiences,
and people in general, can really connect
with her.”
Aniston herself admits the screenplay will
“trigger a lot for people,” and that making the
movie was somewhat “therapeutic.”
“I related to what all girls do, basically, in
that you don’t speak up enough about what
you want and need help with… until it bottles
up and you explode,” she says. “I definitely
related to that part of her, the part that didn’t
speak what she needed.”
Perhaps that’s true of her relationship with
Pitt, but fans may never know the truth. Like
her character in her latest film, though, the
journey of “breaking up” will inevitable reveal
new truths about life and love.
“I still feel so lucky to have experienced [my
marriage],” Aniston told Vanity Fair last year.
“I wouldn’t know what I know now if I hadn’t
been married to Brad. I love Brad; I really love
him. I will love him for the rest of my life. He’s
a fantastic man. I don’t regret any of it, and I’m
not going to beat myself up about it. We spent
seven very intense years together; we taught
each other a lot — about healing, about fun.
We helped each other through a lot, and I really
value that. It was a beautiful, complicated
relationship. The sad thing, for me, is the way
it’s been reduced to a Hollywood cliché — or
maybe it’s just a human cliché. I have a lot of
compassion for everyone going through this.”
About her new film and how it relates to her
own life, Aniston will only say that it’s “a
truthful portrayal of a couple walking through
a break-up.” Very guarded with the press,
Aniston never lets the talk stray to Pitt. Even
when discussing Vaughn, who’s she’s so obviously
dating, she’ll only refer to him as a
“good friend.”
But Aniston’s respect for Vaughn is clear:
“He was never not there for me [during the
shoot], because he was being ‘producer guy,’
she says. “He worked so hard on this… It
meant the world to him. It’s like his baby.”
And just like that, the discussion lands on
babies again. But don’t go there with Aniston.
Like anyone who’s endured a break-up, she’s
learned her lesson.
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