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Biography
When Forbes released their Global
Celebrity 100 list for 2003, there were relatively few surprises in the
Top 10. There were the usual suspects - Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey
and Tiger Woods - with a bunch of big names currently in motion. The
Rolling Stones were out on another mega-tour, Tom
Hanks' production company had just enjoyed a huge hit with My Big
Fat Greek Wedding, Paul McCartney was enjoying a comeback, Eminem had
never gone away, and the world was wondering exactly when Jennifer
Lopez was going to get Ben
Affleck up the aisle. So much for the runners-up. For the one shock
came in the Number One position. She didn't make as much money as the
others. She wasn't anything like as big a movie star as she'd have liked
to be. But, due to her massive TV audience, the number of magazine
covers she'd graced and constant tabloid interest in her private life,
the winner was Jennifer Aniston.
Now earning $1 million per episode of
uber-hit Friends, Aniston had proved herself to be far more weighty than
her sketchy character Rachel Green. Though she'd initially broken
through by launching "the Rachel", a haircut purloined by
millions of women the world over, she'd won an Emmy and a Golden Globe
for her brilliant comic performances in the show. She'd married Brad
Pitt, arguably cinema's most eligible bachelor. And she'd been
nominated for an Independent Spirit award for her part in underground
hit The Good Girl - a success that would lead to the $200 million smash
Bruce Almighty. Her Friends co-star Courteney Cox might have struck
cinema gold first (with Ace Ventura and the Scream series), but it
looked like Aniston was the one in for the long haul.
She was born the 11th of February, 1969,
in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her Crete-born father, John
(real name Anastassakis) had been brought to the US at age 10 when his
parents opened a diner in Eddytown, Pennsylvania. He'd become an actor
seeking work in LA (fellow Greek actor Telly Savalas would be Jennifer's
godfather) and win bit parts in the likes of 87th Precinct, Combat! and
I Spy. Her mother was born in upstate New York, moving with her family
to California where she'd work at Universal Studios, at one point
signing autographs for Rock Hudson. Extremely good-looking, she
eventually won parts in such fare as The Red Skelton Show and The
Beverly Hillbillies, but lack of confidence in her ability caused her to
give up acting.
Things were looking good for the Aniston family (Jennifer also had an
older half-brother, John, 9 years her senior). From 1967 to 1970, John
made good money playing Eric Richards in the series Days Of Our Lives,
NBC's longest-running soap, concerning the trials and tribulations of
the folks of a fictional Salem (he also appear in The Virginian and
Mission: Impossible). It didn't last, however. When the part went, so
did the good times. John worked as a door-to-door salesman, his only
acting success being one small part in Savalas's Kojak. His wife won a
few modeling contracts, but more money was needed. John considered
entering the medical profession, but was too old to be taken in by any
American university. Instead, when Jennifer was 5, he began his training
in Athens, taking his family with him.
Here they would remain for a year. Then John had his studies interrupted
by his agent in New York. Would he care to return to the world of soap?
He would, and so returned to the Big Apple for a three-year stint in
Love Of Life, a major hit based around two warring sisters. John's son
would be played by an actor destined for infinitely bigger things -
Christopher Reeve. Just a few years later, Jennifer and her mother would
meet Reeve on the street and an embarrassed 9-year-old Jennifer would
pull her mother away. The very next week Superman was released - the
youngster now being furious that her mother had not persuaded her to
talk to their very-soon-to-be-mega-famous pal Reeve.
Unfortunately, John Aniston's newfound success would coincide with the
breakdown of his marriage. They'd divorce in 1978, when Jennifer was 9.
He'd go on to even greater TV stardom, first spending the years
1978-1984 in the series Search For Tomorrow, then the very next year
returning to Days Of Our Lives as moustachioed rotter Victor Kiriakis,
keeping the role till 1997, then taking it up once more in 1999 (he also
pop up in Star Trek Voyager and The West Wing). He'd marry again, to
actress Sherry Rooney, and present Jennifer with a step-brother,
Alexander.
At first, Jennifer did not see her father
for a year. After that she spend weekends at his place in New Jersey,
being raised predominantly by her mother on 92nd and Columbus. It was a
pretty seedy area at the time but, being on the 21st floor with a
balcony, they did have a nice view of the Empire State Building.
Naturally disturbed by her parents' split, she felt as if she were the
mother of two unruly children and was desperate to please them both.
When this failed to reunite them, she became a bit of a handful at the
Rudolf Steiner school she attended, believing that perhaps her parents
would fall back into each other's arms when both were called to the
principal's office. Again, nothing doing.
All this palaver broke her concentration at Rudolf Steiner's and she
wasn't the best pupil. Furthermore she wasn't keen on the strictness of
the establishment. TV-watching was frowned upon and she'd only get to
see it when being babysat by brother John (John knew her as "the
Queen of make believe" as from an early age she'd always be walking
and talking her Barbie dolls through scenes). She did, though, enjoy the
Drama Club and picked up a passion for art that lasts to this day (at
age 11 she'd actually have a painting displayed at the New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art). Her real career began once she watched Fame
on TV and decided to attend the real-life Fame school, the New York High
School of the Performing Arts.
As said, young Jennifer was fascinated by art, but music played its
part, too. At 12 she'd been obsessed by the then all-conquering Duran
Duran and once spent a night outside a hotel, hoping for a glimpse of
Simon Le Bon. By 14 she was dating a punk rocker from the East Village
and shaved her hair up above her ears in a kind of modified mohawk. She
wore many ear-rings and rubber bracelets and garbed herself exclusively
in black. Looking back, she later reckoned she never liked punk music,
preferring Van Morrison and Aerosmith, and was really still trying to
unite her parents in concern for her.
Oddly, given her later career, Aniston was not a good-looking youngster.
In fact, though no one realised it, she was mildly cross-eyed. This was
something she discovered later, when already a star. Apparently it was
all to do with a weak muscle in her right eye. It certainly explained
her problems with sport. Beyond this, her eyes would wander, she'd get
bored quickly and, when she didn't actually fall asleep while reading,
she'd constantly have to return to paragraphs she'd inadvertently
skipped over. Not ideal when you're trying to learn your lines, though
the ability to cross her right eye without moving the left might come in
handy should she ever star in a biopic of Ben Turpin.
On top of all this, there was the
confidence question. Not being a stunner did not make Jennifer's life
easier at the Fame school. Being constantly reminded of the fact by her
mother made it far harder. Being an ex-model, mother was always on about
appearances and makeup. Indeed, said Jennifer later, "I don't know
if I would have known how beautiful she was if she wasn't always
pointing out how un-beautiful I was". She'd forever be reminding
Jennifer to outline her "tiny" lips, and to contour her cheeks
because she had "no cheekbones". Consequently Jennifer was
always coated in too much slap, a situation that continued until one of
her first boyfriends in California told her she was more beautiful
without it.
So, life was something of a struggle, yet Jennifer applied herself well.
Invariably not picked for any substantial roles, she'd use her time to
paint the sets and arrange the lights. She also made full use of what
opportunities she had. Taking her on-set one day when she was 15, John
Aniston returned to the waiting-room to find her on the phone to his
agent, asking for movie roles. Doesn't sound like sweet Rachel Green,
does it? Or does it? Though she often blows it badly, Rachel usually has
some devious plan on the go.
Gradually she became recognized as a gifted comedienne. Not being able
to impress with her looks, like so many of the other girls, she had
instead begun to rely on making people laugh. And thankfully she was
advised to not use this as an excuse to avoid going deep into
characters. Graduating in 1987, she decided against college and worked
as a waitress while auditioning and gaining experience off-Broadway in
such stage productions as For Dear Life and Dancing On Chequer's Grave.
She'd sneakily add a few extra productions to her CV when, in the summer
of 1989, she began seeking auditions in Los Angeles while staying with
her father.
At first, parts came quickly. She won a role in the comedy series Molloy
(coincidentally, as it turned out, as a character named Courtney!). Then
she played Ferris Bueller's sister Jennie in the unsuccessful TV
spin-off of the hit Matthew Broderick movie. There'd also be a TV movie
debut in Camp Cucamonga, about a summer retreat thrown into confusion
when the owner comes to believe the handyman is a camp inspector. Some
big TV names would be involved, including John Ratzenberger from Cheers
and several names from The Wonder Years and The Love Boat. Unnoticed by
all, Ratzenberger's daughter was played by a girl who'd soon outshine
them all.
These parts tempted Jennifer to extend
her stay in LA, but from now on it was tough going. She worked as a
waitress, a telemarketeer selling time-share apartments, a messenger and
a receptionist. Attending auditions whenever she could, she moved into
an artsy low-rent communal housing project in Laurel Canyon, known to
its inhabitants as The Hill. The Hill People would pull out their
individual stoves and hide them whenever the inspectors called round. On
Sundays they'd have barbecues together and occasionally take off on road
trips. Once 8 of them stayed in a single Santa Barbara hotel room for
three days, with one photographer constantly arranging crazy shoots just
to see if he could get the girls naked. On Jennifer's 22nd birthday they
stuck headshots of her current crush all over the place, including
inside the fridge.
One friend Jennifer made here was Kristin Hahn, who worked at Paramount
and was a producer's assistant on Cheers. Jennifer would often lie on
Hahn's couch, bemoaning the fact that she would never find film work
ever again (at auditions she was constantly losing out to Kirsty Swanson
- the original Buffy). Along with the other girls they'd have boozy
nights out where no one was allowed to talk to boys. One night Hahn
broke the rules and brought back a new (male) buddy with whom she'd been
sinking sake. Recognising this breach of etiquette, the house dog bit
the interloper on the arse. The guy's name was Matthew Perry.
Nothing Aniston did seemed to come off. In 1992 she snaffled a part in
Fox comedy series The Edge, dealing in comic skits and TV ad parodies,
in the spirit of Saturday Night Live and Kentucky Fried Movie. Alongside
her were Alan Ruck (who'd appeared in the original Ferris Bueller film)
and Wayne Knight, that same year to find fame as Newman in Seinfeld.
Painfully underrated, the show did not make a second season and Jennifer
had to make do with brief appearances in Quantum Leap and Herman's Head.
The next year saw Jennifer's big screen debut in Leprechaun (well, you
have to start somewhere). Here a midget fairy (played by Warwick Davis,
of Willow fame) is sent psycho when his treasure is stolen, but is
trapped with a 4-leaf clover. Ten years later, Aniston and her screen
dad move in and inadvertently free him. Cue, quite naturally, slaughter
and mayhem. There was plenty of blood and the usual half-arsed humour
but The Wicker Man it wasn't. Aniston stood out but look closely and
you'll see her lips don't move when she's screaming. Brilliant
ventriloquism or bad dubbing - the choice is yours.
1994 brought another doomed project, the series Muddling Through. Here
Stephanie Hodge played a white trash type recently released from jail
after shooting her cheatin' hubbie in the backside. She tries to rise
above her surroundings but is constantly drawn back by her family,
including daughter Jennifer and her sister Aimee Brooks (who'd earlier
appeared in Days Of Our Lives). The project had been shelved for a while
then, when finally released, received a mixed reception. It was nearly
picked up for the 1994 Fall season, but Hodge had already moved on to
Unhappily Ever After so the option was not taken up.
This was actually very good news for
Jennifer. While Muddling Through was on the shelf, she'd gone along to
an audition for a new comedy series to be titled Friends Like These.
Originally asked to play a character named Monica Gellar, she insisted
on trying out for Rachel Green and stormed it, the Monica part going to
Courteney Cox, original choice for Rachel. Along with Lisa
Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matt
LeBlanc (whose character Joey would play Dr Drake Ramore in Days Of
Our Lives) and Matthew Perry (he of the bitten bottom), they would play
a group of young buddies in New York who drink coffee, engage in
inconsequential chatter and make a mess of a long series of
relationships that grow ever more incestuous. Unsurprisingly, its name
now shortened to Friends, it was a massive hit. If Muddling Through had
been picked up, Jennifer would have missed out.
Throughout the series' 10-year run, each of the cast members would rise
to prominence for a while. Aniston would be first, with her haircut
being replicated on the heads of women everywhere. At first, Jennifer
herself had hated it, vowing to wear a hat until she was allowed to
change it. But the cut added to a success that was nothing short of
phenomenal so she bit the bullet and ploughed on, intriguing much of the
world with Rachel's on-off relationship with Monica's brother Ross, and
many others. All the Friends would gradually perfect their styles as the
show went on but, at the end of the day, it was Rachel - smart but
ditzy, determined but undisciplined - who became the general favorite.
No one had a bad word to say about Jennifer Aniston, other than to raise
the possibility that, if she WERE just playing herself, she would never
amount to a "serious" actress.
Things were not all bright, though. After Leprechaun, Jennifer had
undergone an experience she wished she hadn't. Then weighing around 130
pounds she'd made the final audition for some show and was asked to turn
up in leotard and tights. "That'll blow it for me", she joked
to her agent, only to be told that, actually, he'd been meaning to ask
her to lose weight. This she did - 20 pounds in a year, with the help of
low fat diets, nutritionists, fitness gurus and the like. And it helped,
but Aniston still curses the day she became body-conscious.
There was also the matter of love. Having earlier dated Charlie
Schlatter, her Ferris Bueller co-star, Jennifer had just been enjoying
her first "mature" relationship, with actor Daniel McDonald,
but they'd split just before she got Friends. He'd gone off to New York
and done well, being Tony-nominated for Steel Pier. Later Jennifer moved
on to Counting Crows singer Adam Durvitz (an ex of Courteney Cox) and
then Tate Donovan (an ex of Sandra
Bullock) with whom she'd live for the two years up to March, 1998.
Shortly after that, she'd meet her future husband, Brad
Pitt.
Like the others, Aniston would use her
downtime during Friends to attempt a film career. As said, Cox would
luck out with the Scream series, but her co-stars did not fare so well.
Schwimmer would appear in such nonsense as The Pallbearer and Breast
Men, a brief show in Apt Pupil being his only respectable effort.
LeBlanc suffered in Ed and Lost In Space while Perry endured Almost
Heroes and Three To Tango before reverting to his Friends character in
the Bruce
Willis hit The Whole Nine Yards. Oddly, it was Kudrow, the
unconscionably scatty Phoebe, who enjoyed the most varied and stable
success, starring in the excellent comedy Romy And Michele's High School
Reunion, the fascinating indie The Opposite Of Sex and the Robert
De Niro hit comedy Analyse This. Yet, no matter how badly any of
them did, Aniston did worse.
Working weekends during her hectic Friends schedule, she first appeared
in Edward Burns' She's The One, a smart comedy concerning just what men
and women want. Here Burns and Michael McGlone played Irish brothers in
New York, McGlone being a Wall Street investor who cheats on frustrated
wife Jennifer with a tarty Cameron
Diaz (Burns' ex). This was followed by Picture Perfect, Jennifer's
debut headliner, where she played an ad executive who's told she's not
progressing up the ladder because she's projecting the wrong image - not
being engaged or heavily in debt she might leave the company at any
time. Consequently, she pretends to be engaged to Jay Mohr, a guy she's
hardly met and who, to add further complications, is madly in love with
her. It was charming stuff, but not nearly as funny as it ought to have
been.
The same year (1997) also brought 'Til There Was You, the first of
Aniston's "best friend" movies (she gives good best friend).
Directed by Scott Winant, co-creator of thirty something, this saw
Jeanne Tripplehorn and Dylan McDermott finally drawn together after
years of missing each other by inches. As said, Jennifer popped up as
Tripplehorn's foil, but it was Sarah
Jessica Parker, star of that other big New York comedy Sex And The
City, who stole the show as a flirty and voracious former child star.
Most people were disappointed by Jennifer's failure to rise above her
Rachel Green character in these movies. But her star was still in the
ascendant. Friends was now a monster seller and, after a well-publicised
spat with the producers where the six stars formed a union and
threatened a walk-out, the wages had risen dramatically. Beginning on
$35,000 per episode for the first series, they'd leap to $75,000 for the
third, $100,000 for the fifth, then all the way up to the big $1
million. Also receiving $2 million for Picture Perfect and $3 million
for her next feature, The Object Of My Affection, Jennifer was now very
wealthy indeed. Beyond this, she was the new face of L'Oreal Elvive.
Why? Well, sporting that famous "Rachel do", she was quite
clearly worth it.
The Object Of My Affection was another
rom com based around a complex adult situation. Here Jennifer played
sweet social worker Nina Borowski who, though pregnant by her creep
boyfriend, decides to dump him and live with a gay friend Paul Rudd. She
likes Rudd, she really likes him, and asks him to act as father to the
child. But what she wants and what he wants is very different indeed.
1998 would also see Aniston appear in the Waiting For Guffman-style
mockumentary The Thin Pink Line (alongside David Schwimmer and Mike
Myers). And there'd be another romance, Dream For An Insomniac. Here
Ione Skye was a wannabe actress in San Francisco who's given up on love.
Then Mackenzie Astin arrives at the café where she works and, being as
she's about to shift to LA to find stardom, she has very little time to
win his heart. Jennifer, once more, was the best friend, unfortunately
listening much more than she talked. There was plenty of talking from
the others - it was that kind of movie.
None of these films were a success, but Aniston was nevertheless growing
more famous by the second. In the spring of 1998, she'd met Brad
Pitt and begun a very discreet romance. The media went crazy trying
to get shots of them together at the Tibetan Freedom Concert yet only
succeeded by sneaking into the after-show party at the premiere of
Pitt's Meet Joe Black.
Of course, it was soon right out in the
open. In 1999, hosting Saturday Night Live, Jennifer would act in a skit
satirising Athena Marie Rolando, an actress who'd been stalking Brad. A
year later the couple would be married. Naturally, a host of celebrities
would be invited. But not Jennifer's mother, who'd peeved her daughter
no end with the "revelations" in her book From Mother And
Daughter To Friends. They'd be estranged for three years.
Such was Brad 'n' Jennie's fame that there was even trouble with the
jewellers who designed their wedding rings. Claiming Damiani had
promised the rings would be unique then sold copies for $1000 a go, they
sued, the settlement allowing Brad to design jewellery for the company
while Jennifer modelled it.
1999 brought a definite upturn in
Aniston's movie career. First came Office Space, an above-average satire
of office life by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-head, and based
on his Milton cartoons for Saturday Night Live. Here workers will do
anything to escape the Orwellian nightmare of their work-place, with
Jennifer played an equally frustrated waitress at the café to which
they flee. Soon revenge in on the cards, adding another dimension to a
comedy that, though it was a flop at the time, went on to become a major
word-of-mouth success on video. Jennifer followed it quickly by
providing the voice of single mum Annie Hughes in the animation of Ted
Hughes's The Iron Giant where, in small town Maine in 1957 a small boy
befriends a massive robot from outer space. Again, not a hit, but
genuinely excellent nonetheless.
All the while Friends kept getting bigger and many tricks were employed
to keep the ratings up. For instance, when the show was suffering beside
the reality TV of Survivor, Jennifer engaged in an onscreen kiss with Winona
Ryder. The identity of the father of Rachel's child was another big
one. If the producers needed more viewers they'd always involve Aniston
more.
Yet Jennifer knew Friends wouldn't last forever and persisted with her
film career. For ages she waited to film The Virgin Mary where she'd
have played a 29-year-old virgin who falls for a self-loathing hit man,
but the script rewrites were so slow she had to return to Friends. Her
next effort would be Rock Star where Mark
Wahlberg played a singer in a tribute band who's asked to join the
real thing (as had actually happened when Tim "Ripper" Owens
was recruited by Judas Priest). Jennifer would play his girlfriend,
Emily Poule, who's delighted by his success but gradually shut out of
his life.
Though Jennifer performed well, it was a small role in a mediocre film.
But any disappointment was swept away a year later when, in 2002, she
took the lead in the indie flick The Good Girl. Finally subverting her
Rachel Green character entirely, here she played a cashier at Retail
Rodeo who, bored out of her mind with her pot-head couch-potato hubbie
John C. Reilly, begins an affair with a new check-out kid, the much
younger Jake Gyllenhaal.
It was torrid stuff and emotionally
exacting - all the things people did not expect from Aniston. At last
she was achieving respect for something other than pure comedy. 2002
would see her win an Emmy for Friends (her third nomination) and be
nominated for that Independent Spirit award for The Good Girl. 2003
would see her take a Golden Globe for Friends as well, at the second
attempt.
Having gained critical respect, Aniston
now won harder Hollywood hearts by bringing in the money (always the
bottom line). In Bruce Almighty she appeared as Jim
Carrey's sweet kindergarten teacher fiancee, a woman he might well
lose if he doesn't pull his socks up. Thankfully, he gets a chance to do
far more than that when God (Morgan
Freeman) grants him brief omnipotence over all things. It was an
excellent comedy, a real return to form for Carrey. And, making well
over $200 million at the US box office, it took Aniston up towards the
A-list. It certainly brought classier projects as her next effort,
Captured, saw her alongside Ben
Stiller and Philip Seymour Hoffman, Stiller played a recently
married analyst who, though fearing risk of any kind, can't help but get
involved with Jennifer.
2004 would be another momentous year for Aniston, though more painful
than she might have predicted. Onscreen she cemented her position in
cinema comedy with Along Came Polly where she played the free-spirited,
sexy and salsa-dancing new girlfriend of supremely uptight risk assessor
Ben
Stiller. Packed with pratfalls and gastric jokes, it was
understandably a big hit. Offscreen, though, all was not well.
Throughout the year the tabloids were in a frenzy over the state of
Aniston's marriage. Had Brad
Pitt fallen for co-star Angelina
Jolie during the filming of Mr And Mrs Smith? Had Aniston
prioritized her career and refused to bear him children? The coverage
was hysterical and endless, and was eventually proved to be at least
partially accurate. A
niston and Pitt would split up in
January, 2005, leading to divorce that October. Pitt would be spotted
increasingly often with Jolie while the media would go wild over
Aniston's relationships with actors Vincent Cassel, Geoff Stults and
Vince Vaughn. More positively, the split would push Aniston into a
reunion with her mother.
The furore surrounding the Pitt divorce
would see Aniston's celebrity rise to ever greater heights. Onscreen,
though, she was dutifully continuing her metamorphosis into a
"serious" actress. In Derailed she'd play a businesswoman
whose flirtation with fellow commuter Clive Owen develops into an
affair. But, meeting at a dodgy hotel, the couple are violently
interrupted by crook Vincent Cassel, who batters Owen and rapes Aniston.
Then, having stolen their details, he begins to blackmail them, and
their need for secrecy demands they seek an unusual solution to their
problem.
She'd follow this with another comedy,
Rumour Has It, directed by Rob Reiner. Here she arrives back at her
parents' for her wedding to Mark Ruffalo. Once home, though, she's
shocked to discover that her family history was the inspiration for The
Graduate and that both her mother and grandmother (Shirley Maclaine)
have had affairs with local man Kevin
Costner. Will Aniston now follow in that family tradition, and who's
her real dad?
2006 would see her remain on her present flight-path, alternating
between comedy and drama. The Break Up had her as a Chicago art dealer
divorcing Vince Vaughn but forced by circumstances to continue sharing
the house with him. With many a suggestion coming from friends and
family they now wage a dirty war, each trying to drive the other into
moving out. Far more prestigious would be Friends With Money which
placed Ansiton in a tremendous ensemble featuring Frances McDormand,
Joan Cusack and Catherine Keener. Here the four women play lifelong
friends, all of them well-off but approaching a certain age. When
Aniston jacks in her teaching job, becomes a cleaner and seeks the
elusive love of her life, the others are pushed to examine their own
situations - all of their marriages are under pressure - and wonder if
they have struck the right balance between love, friendship and
security.
It's hard to second guess what Jennifer Aniston might choose to do next.
With comedy still serving her so well it's unlikely she'll leave it
entirely behind. But it's more than likely that, after Derailed, she'll
move deeper into spiky drama. She will certainly continue using her
spare time to indulge in art (she still paints and works with charcoal
and clay).
She might decide to direct - she and
David Schwimmer both used their power to get behind the cameras on
Friends. And she's still involved with Plan B Entertainment, a
production company she began with Pitt and Brad Grey, who then became
CEO at Paramount. Come 2005 the company would debut with the hit Charlie
And The Chocolate Factory and have another dozen projects on the go.
Aniston is going nowhere. Not only has she earned critical respect, but
her famous loyalty (she was the only celebrity to visit Robert Downey Jr
in Corcoran Jail, where he'd been beaten and choked) is sure to pay
dividends, even in the nasty world of Hollywood. Whatever. She's
certainly proved she's more than a simple haircut. ~ Dominic Wills
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