Cue the waterworks! Jennifer Aniston was visibly emotional after winning Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for her role in The Morning Show at the 2020 SAG Awards on Sunday, January 19.
“Oh, my gosh. This is so unbelievable. What a room,” the 50-year-old actress began after she took the stage at the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall in Los Angeles. “You know, I was thinking back to when I was a little girl, and I would — I didn’t have a VCR, but I had a tape recorder, and I would tape Laverne & Shirley, Happy Days and others. … I’d listen to episodes in my head and say, ‘I know one day I am going to do that.’ Then I got a Bob’s Big Boy commercial’ and I got into SAG. They were humble beginnings, but you have to start somewhere. I just have to say I am so grateful. Our extraordinary head writer created so many characters that are so layered and complicated and messy and ugly and beautifully human.”
While thanking the cast and crew of the Apple TV+ series, the Friends alum compared her character’s “emotional breakdowns” to her real life.
“It was literally like seven months of therapy covering about 20 years of work,” she quipped. “So thank you for watching that.”
Aniston then gave a sweet shout-out to her Morning Show costar Reese Witherspoon.
“Reese Witherspoon, I love you girl. It took 20 years but we did it,” she gushed. “And all of you, your performances inspire me. For years I feel like we have kind of grown up together. I know the few times I have been invited back into this room over the last 20-something years, it has been so special, the times that I have been invited. And to be up here is truly an honor.”
The actress, who won a SAG with the cast of Friends in 1996, concluded her speech by sending her friend Adam Sandler love.
“Adam Sandler, your performance is extraordinary, and your magic is real,” Aniston declared of his performance in Uncut Gems, which he didn’t get a SAG or Oscar nom for. “I love you, buddy.”
Earlier in the evening, Aniston was spotted clapping during her ex-husband Brad Pitt’s acceptance speech for his role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
“Let’s be honest it was a difficult part. A guy who gets high, takes his shirt off and doesn’t get on with his wife. It’s a big stretch,” Pitt quipped.
After Aniston’s win, the former couple were spotted congratulating each other backstage during the broadcast.
Aniston and Pitt were married from 2000 to 2005. After crossing paths at the Golden Globes earlier this month, the exes were spotted at the same afterparties. The actor told Entertainment Tonight that Aniston was “a good friend” during a pre-Globes red carpet interview.
“I’ll run into Jen,” he said at the time. “The second most important reunion of her year? I understand! That was a play on Friends. They were saying that.”
After filing for divorce from Aniston, Pitt started a relationship with Angelina Jolie. The twosome, who share six kids, split in 2016 after two years of marriage and 10 years together. The Dumplin’ star, for her part, called it quits with husband Justin Theroux in 2018 after less than three years of marriage.
