A change of heart. Jennifer Aniston admitted that she was very close to putting her acting career to bed.
The Friends alum, 51, told fellow actors Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes on their “SmartLess” podcast that the idea “has crossed my mind” in the last two years. She said that there was one project that made her begin to reconsider her future in the business, which is something she “never did before” then.
“It was after a job I had completed, and I was like, ‘Whoa, that was really … that sucked the life out of me. And I don’t know if this is what interests me,” she said on Monday, September 28, episode. “It was an unprepared project. We’ve all been a part of them. You always say, ‘I’ll never [do it] again! Never again! I will never back up into a start date!’”
If Aniston went through with it, she revealed that she would “probably” pursue an interior design career instead. “I love it. It’s my happy place. It’s really a happy place for me,” she added.
Aniston’s stacked résumé boasts high-profile TV credits such as Friends and The Morning Show. However, she has also found success as a movie star through roles in Marley & Me, Horrible Bosses and We’re the Millers.
Out of her many acting jobs, Aniston confessed that she counts playing Rachel Green on Friends as her all-time favorite. Her 2011 comedy film Just Go With It was a close second for her because she “always” enjoys working with her real-life BFF Adam Sandler, whom she later worked with again in 2019’s Murder Mystery.
Aniston made a good call in sticking to her acting roots. In 2019, she garnered acclaim after playing Alex Levy on The Morning Show, a series that she also executive produced. For her efforts, she earned a Screen Actor’s Guild Award. She also received Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations.
Aniston recently spoke about her desire to be taken seriously as an actress and recalled being typecast due to her role in Friends.
“I could not get Rachel Green off of my back for the life of me. I could not escape ‘Rachel from Friends,’ and it’s on all the time and you’re like, ‘Stop playing that f–king show!’” she told The Hollywood Reporter in June. “The Good Girl was the first time I got to really shed whatever the Rachel character was, and to be able to disappear into someone who wasn’t that was such a relief to me.”
The Dumplin’ actress continued, “But I remember the panic that set over me, thinking, ‘Oh, God. I don’t know if I can do this. Maybe they’re right. Maybe everybody else is seeing something I’m not seeing, which is [that] you are only that girl in the New York apartment with the purple walls.’ So, I was almost doing it for myself just to see if I could do something other than that. And it was terrifying because you’re doing it in front of the world.”
