Archive for the 'Photoshoots' Category

Jennifer Aniston sits down with Allure to take a look at some popular TikTok trends. Watch as Jen falls in love with the nose vacuum, learns about hair floss, reminisces about all sorts of bangs, thin ’90s eyebrows, and much more.

 

 

JENNIFER ANISTON HAS SPENT MOST OF HER ADULT LIFE IN THE SPOTLIGHT, WITH ALL ITS GLARE. AT 53, SHE OPENS UP ABOUT HER PATH TO LEAVING REGRETS AND SOME DEEPLY PERSONAL PAIN BEHIND.

If we’re being literal, the hills above western Los Angeles are actually the only place where Jennifer Aniston is the girl next door. That’s what people called her for a long time. The girl next door, which is a ’90s euphemism that means she’s unintimidating, approachable. But here, along avenues of impermeable iron gates, among houses hidden behind hedges grown to make sure you know your place, the vibe is pretty intimidating. To live here, one assumes, you have to have achieved a certain kind of Olympian status, like having been among the most beloved figures in American pop culture for 30 years.

This is what I’m thinking when the gates to her house swing open and I enter onto a pea stone car park. Pruned trees, gurgling fountains, 500-foot-tall front doors. Then suddenly, there’s a lot of barking and Aniston’s familiar voice, somewhere inside, reprimanding her dogs. When she opens the door — ripped jeans, tank top, barefoot — Aniston looks like she could be the owner’s out-of-town friend crashing here for a few days.

She welcomes me into the house, which looks like a comfortable art gallery and smells like a box of new shoes transported in a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk full of gardenias. “Excuse my frazzledness,” she says, seeming pretty unfrazzled, as we walk into her kitchen. “I just had a whole thing happen at work.” She’s in the middle of filming the third season of The Morning Show. “I just [found out I] have a few pages to learn of a huge interview scene.”

“Our interview can be a dry run,” I propose.

“Yes, this will be my dry — exactly. That’s exactly right.” Aniston at her most Aniston. It’s that thing she does. She murmur repeats — part bumbling professor, part conspiratorial best friend.

Immediately, she’s welcoming: “Can I make you a shake? I’m having a shake.” I am not about to refuse a homemade shake from Jennifer Aniston. Sure. Great.

“I want to introduce you to my dogs.” She opens the door to where they’ve been relegated. “Clyde is amazing, but Chesterfield gets barky. You have to ignore him. Even if he licks your hand and you’re like, ‘Oh, there’s my in,’ he will jump and it seems scary.” I do as I’m told: aloof and indifferent. I could be a French waiter.

“Okay, I’m making us a shake. Here we go.” I lean against her kitchen island and watch as Aniston begins to assemble the ingredients. Back and forth to the refrigerator, in and out of cabinets, collecting little containers of powders and a thing of nuts and then ground-up some- things and there’s a banana and then shavings of something elses. Am I okay with chocolate-flavored things? “Yep, but I’m a vegetarian so just no bacon, please.”

“Ha! I’m not going to put the bacon in! I’ll leave out the bacon. I’ll leave out the bacon.” Murmur, repeat, perfect timing.“Let me blend this. Hold on.” She blends. Chesterfield — a big white husky? shepherd? lab mix? — starts barking. She pours two tall glasses of smoothie. “Whoa, I hope you like sweet things,” she says. “Cheers.”

We move to the living room — and step into two sides of Jennifer Aniston. There’s a wall of artwork and floor-to-ceiling windows. But there are also dog beds, a giant sofa with a slipcover, and a really casual vibe. She’s not a coaster person. Aniston sits on the floor and Chesterfield jumps on the couch next to me.

Earlier I was texting a journalist friend of mine. I told him I was interviewing Aniston and I asked him to give me smart things to say. “One thought is this,” he texted. “No one’s ever going to be famous the way she is. That kind of mass-fame phenomenon burning so bright for so long, it’s just not achievable today. She’s like a silent-film star among a generation of TikTok dipshits.”

I read her the text. “Whoa. Oh, that just gave me chills,” she says. “I’m a little choked up. I feel like it’s dying. There are no more movie stars. There’s no more glamour. Even the Oscar parties used to be so fun….”

There’s something that’s distracting me. Yes, I do have the feeling that whenever Jennifer Aniston fades into posterity (something that doesn’t seem imminent; she has two new movies coming out, and the third season of The Morning Show), the station of movie star will be diminished. But it’s not that. It’s her hair. Her hair is the second most famous thing in this house. You could say her hair was the second most famous thing on Friends. I can see the nuances, the parts of each strand that change to gold as she moves her head. It’s a little unsettling. Like seeing your own reflection in Tom Cruise’s aviators.

About a year ago, Aniston launched a hair-care line, LolaVie, with a simple and ambitious mission: “Create a product that is good for the environment, good for our hair, take out all the crappy chemicals, and have it perform,” says Aniston.

Then she says, “I hate social media.” This is unexpected. What do you mean? “I’m not good at it.” This seems…counterintuitive. As you may be aware, about three years ago, Aniston joined Instagram. She opened an account, posted a photo of the cast of Friends, and in the following hours, the platform rushed to accommodate so many thousands of Jennifer Aniston followers that it crashed. Is that what she means by not being good at it? Like, is it hard because you’re too popular? Like in a job interview when they ask you your biggest weakness and you say I guess I work too hard sometimes?

“It’s torture for me. The reason I went on Instagram was to launch this line,” she explains. “Then the pandemic hit and we didn’t launch. So I was just stuck with being on Instagram. It doesn’t come naturally.”

I ask her about this. How, to people like us, who came of age before InstaChat and SnapTube and FaceTik, social media can seem unnecessarily punitive, like checking in with the meanest girl from high school every 10 minutes to confirm you’re still a loser.

“I’m really happy that we got to experience growing up, being a teenager, being in our 20s without this social media aspect,” she says. “Look, the internet, great intentions, right? Connect people socially, social networking. It goes back to how young girls feel about themselves, compare and despair.

“I feel the best in who I am today, better than I ever did in my 20s or 30s even, or my mid-40s. We needed to stop saying bad shit to ourselves,” says Aniston, scolding her future self: “You’re going to be 65 one day and think, I looked fucking great at 53.” Something in her tone makes me think that this isn’t a typical “I’m proud of my wrinkles and gray hair” platitude. This goes deeper.

“I would say my late 30s, 40s, I’d gone through really hard shit, and if it wasn’t for going through that, I would’ve never become who I was meant to be,” she says. “That’s why I have such gratitude for all those shitty things. Otherwise, I would’ve been stuck being this person that was so fearful, so nervous, so unsure of who they were.” She finishes her smoothie and reaches out to Chesterfield. “And now, I don’t fucking care.”

Maybe I look confused. She explains.

“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” says Aniston, of a period several years ago.

On the scale of dumb things to say, this is the moment when I really hit it out of the park. “I had no idea.”

“Yeah, nobody does,” she replies graciously. “All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”

We sit quietly for a minute, maybe sad for all the ships that have ever sailed. I almost want to apologize to Aniston for being a journalist. This doesn’t feel like any of my business.

“I have zero regrets,” she says. “I actually feel a little relief now because there is no more, ‘Can I? Maybe. Maybe. Maybe.’ I don’t have to think about that anymore.”

Back then — and for years — there were headlines swirling through pop culture that Aniston wouldn’t have kids. That she wasn’t interested or she just wanted to be a star or whatever idea was selling that week.

Adding to the personal pain of what she went through was the “narrative that I was just selfish,” she says. “I just cared about my career. And God forbid a woman is successful and doesn’t have a child. And the reason my husband left me, why we broke up and ended our marriage, was because I wouldn’t give him a kid. It was absolute lies. I don’t have anything to hide at this point.”

I have flashes of every magazine rack, every airport newsstand. Those “Jen Has a Baby Bump!” or equivalent headlines were everywhere (including Allure). We all felt entitled to the cellular happenings inside her uterus. We consumed those headlines, then dropped them in the trash and got back to our lives. But she couldn’t.

“I got so frustrated. Hence that op-ed I wrote [for The Huffington Post in 2016, slamming the media for its obsession with her being pregnant and its treatment of women, generally]. I was like, ‘I’ve just got to write this because it’s so maddening and I’m not superhuman to the point where I can’t let it penetrate and hurt.’”

Chesterfield is back on the couch, trying to curl up on my leg.

“I think my mom’s divorce really screwed her up,” Aniston says when I ask her about growing up. “Back in that generation it wasn’t like, ‘Go to therapy, talk to somebody. Why don’t you start microdosing?’ You’re going through life and picking up your child with tears on your face and you don’t have any help.”

Chesterfield nudges deeper onto my lap. Aniston pulls him off. “Come here, baby,” she says. “I know you want to, but you just can’t lick people.” It’s one thing to be a dog person, but Aniston is next level.

“I forgave my mom,” she continues, getting back to her human family. “I forgave my father. I’ve forgiven my family.” (Aniston was estranged from her mother for years.)

Who among us hasn’t tried — successfully or not — to forgive our family? You in the back, put your hand down. You’re lying to yourself. Families are things to be forgiven.

“It’s important,” she says. “It’s toxic to have that resentment, that anger. I learned that by watching my mom never let go of it. I remember saying, ‘Thank you for showing me what never to be.’ So that’s what I mean about taking the darker things that happen in our lives, the not-so-happy moments, and trying to find places to honor them because of what they have given to us.”

One of the things her parents’ divorce gave her was motivation to leave. “My house was not a fun house to live in,” she says, about her family’s apartment in New York City. “I was thrilled to get out.”

After graduating from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City, Aniston worked as a waitress at Jackson Hole diner on the Upper West Side, and at an ice cream place in Lincoln Center. (“I’d make a shake and if there was leftover…? I finished it. Why waste this? I was rounder then,” she says, arching her eyebrow.) Eventually, “I moved to California.” She arrived in Los Angeles “the summer of 1989, which was yesterday,” she says. “I walked into a party in Laurel Canyon. This girl says, ‘Come with us. We’re doing a circle.’ I was like, ‘What’s a circle?’ It was all women and they saged you before you went in. Then a talking stick, I’m sure with feathers on it. The women call in the four directions, and I’m like, ‘What the fuck is going on? Am I in a cult?’ Hours later, woman after woman, just speaking, sharing thoughts and fears, worries. How incredible women are for each other. That’s how I got into that world, which I guess would be called Woo Woo. It was very Woo Woo.”

The women of the Woo Woo circle remain her closest friends. She met the woman who would become her producing partner that night. All around Aniston’s house are framed photos of these women — hiking, traveling, smiling, sharing their lives, this close-knit coven of old friends. Students of Friends (and whatever you think of them, they are legion — just witness the cultural juggernaut that was the Friends reunion last year) will know that the show’s premise was about that time in life when friends are family. Aniston is a case of life imitating art.

“I remember in high school doing a Chekhov play,” she says. “It wasn’t funny, and I was making it funny. And my teacher said, ‘Why don’t you just be funny because you have it in you?’ And I was like, ‘How dare you? I’m a dramatic actress!’ Turns out, it was the thing that saved my life, comedy. It was a salve to make people laugh.”

“There are people who say that watching Friends has saved them during cancer diagnosis, or so many people with just so much gratitude for a little show,” she says, her eyes glassy with tears. “We really loved each other and we took care of each other. I don’t know why it still resonates; there are no iPhones. It’s just people talking to each other. Nobody talks to each other anymore.”

Coming out on the other side is what she calls “a little mosaic. It gets blown apart and then somehow gets put back together into this beautiful mosaic.”

I think of all the gossip and schadenfreude, all the hysterical tabloid exclamation points, the clickbait. I think of all the crap the world has thrown at Aniston — and I feel like she must have a really good therapist if she can find a “beautiful mosaic” anywhere in it. But maybe that’s the point. We all break. Then the benevolent forces of the universe sweep in and collect our broken parts, our flaws and jagged edges, and turn them into works of art. Maybe that’s why our 40s feel more powerful than our 20s: The universe needs time to assemble our mosaics.

“I didn’t want to partner with someone until some of that work was done. It wouldn’t be fair,” she says. “I don’t want to move into a house when there are no walls.”

“You felt like you had no walls?”

“It was terrible,” she says.

We walk outside. Aniston’s backyard is a small botanical garden with olive trees, a dusty path to the chicken coop, and a feeling of total privacy. Across the yard from the main house is a small cottage that’s about 90 percent windows. “Welcome to the Babe Cave,” she says. “This was Justin’s office.” (Aniston and her ex-husband Justin Theroux split up in 2017.) “You can imagine he likes things black and dark.” After he moved out, “I lightened it up, stripped it all. He came over [the other day] and was like, ‘What the fuck did you do?’ I said, ‘I brought the light back in, buddy.’”

The view, the furniture, the palpable calm — you could write the story of your life in a room like this.

“I’m going to do that one day,” she says. “I’m going to stop saying, ‘I can’t write.’” We walk back out to the garden. “I’ve spent so many years protecting my story about IVF. I’m so protective of these parts because I feel like there’s so little that I get to keep to myself. The [world] creates narratives that aren’t true, so I might as well tell the truth. I feel like I’m coming out of hibernation. I don’t have anything to hide.”

“If you were writing the story of your life,” I ask, “what would you call this chapter?”

“What would you call this chapter?” Murmur, repeats. We look out at Los Angeles, blurry in the late afternoon smog.

She smiles. She’s got it. “Phoenix Rising.”

In their Actors on Actors conversation Jennifer Aniston (‘The Morning Show’) and Sebastian Stan (‘Pam & Tommy’) discuss what it’s like talking to a prosthetic penis, how best to approach playing a real life person like Tommy Lee and reuniting the cast of ‘Friends.’

Variety Actors on Actors presented by Apple TV+.

Of course Jennifer Aniston and Sebastian Stan are bound to talk about the 1990s. Stan is receiving Emmy buzz for donning tattoos and losing weight to play Tommy Lee, the Mötley Crüe drummer, in Hulu’s limited series “Pam & Tommy” — which is set in the decade that made Aniston a star on “Friends.” Actually, as Aniston thinks about it, she could see Stan chilling on the famous coffeehouse couch on her former sitcom. But they don’t agree about one thing: Is he a Joey or a Chandler?

The time travel then moves to the early days of COVID, to discuss Aniston’s transformative turn as anchor Alex Levy on Season 2 of “The Morning Show.” In the latest arc on the Apple TV+ drama, her character jets to Italy to confront her disgraced colleague and best friend Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell) — but that wasn’t always the show’s plan. By the time they finish exchanging stories on Variety‘s “Actors on Actors” presented by Apple TV+, Aniston and Stan are so comfortable, they’ve cast themselves in a dream project together.

SEBASTIAN STAN: I’m such a huge fan of yours. I have been for years, so this is very special. Where I’d love to start is with doing a show during COVID, and incorporating COVID as subject matter. How was that approaching it from the perspective of Alex?
JENNIFER ANISTON: There was obviously no COVID when we started shooting, although there were rumblings of it. It was, like, January. We had shot for about a month. All of a sudden, companies were closing and working from home. We were all saying, “What about the actors? We don’t have the luxury of social distancing. We’re in scenes together.”

STAN: Yeah.

ANISTON: And they’re like, “Screw the actors.” So we shut down. We took that time to realize that there was something missing in Season 2; it had to be completely reimagined. The same thing happened with Season 1, where we had about seven shows outlined, and the #MeToo movement happened. I feel like our show is kind of in this place where we actually deliver the news literally, as in real time.

STAN: I found in the pandemic watching the news was heartbreaking and exhausting. And sometimes it made me paranoid. Did you find that you ended up watching more news as a result?

ANISTON: Actually, the opposite. I watched more news before, because I loved morning shows. But when we started shooting, I stopped watching. It was too much. You shot “Pam & Tommy” during the pandemic as well.

STAN: We did. We started around this time last year, so the vaccines were just coming out. Everybody felt safer or a little more relief. But it was just weird because it was the ’90s every day for 12 hours.

ANISTON: Which, by the way, feels like yesterday.

STAN: I know.

ANISTON: I have about a thousand things to ask you about “Pam & Tommy.” Can I just ask one really blatant one, get it out of the way?

STAN: Of course.

ANISTON: So you have a scene where you’re talking to your penis?

STAN: Yes. We talk.

ANISTON: How do you prepare for that? How does it read to you on the page?

STAN: The train of thought starts to go into panic mode. It was a tricky scene to shoot, because we didn’t know if it was really going to work — if it was going to be too much or not.

ANISTON: Did you shoot it kind of two ways?

STAN: No. There were components, manual and prosthetics and things, and people with wires sort of plugging things into sockets.

ANISTON: That’s crazy.

STAN: Well, yeah. Look, we have the benefits of CGI. But we went old school for it, which was an interesting experience.

ANISTON: Very bold. Very brave.

STAN: His penis is a character in the book that he wrote. So the writers were tipping their hat off to that, and trying to find a creative way of how this guy would confess his love for this woman.

ANISTON: How much did you study Tommy and Pam? Were you familiar with them in the ’90s?

STAN: I’m from Europe originally.

ANISTON: From?

STAN: Romania. And then I lived in Vienna for a while. We moved to New York in ’95. I remember “Baywatch” more than anything. Even in Europe, we used to watch that religiously. You know, communism or not, you got “Baywatch.” But I didn’t really know what happened. That’s what was surprising about doing the show — how many people really didn’t know that the tape was stolen, or they had nothing to do with it.

ANISTON: And it was right at the time when the internet really shaped a new culture about people becoming famous. This thing of people becoming famous for basically doing nothing. I mean — Paris Hilton, Monica Lewinsky, all those.

STAN: Yeah. When you look back at the ’90s, you do see how many things have happened in that decade. Even the O.J. Simpson thing was actually the beginning of 24-hour news.

ANISTON: I always say I feel lucky that we got a little taste of the industry before it became what it is today, which is just different — more streaming services, more people. You’re famous from TikTok. You’re famous from YouTube. You’re famous from Instagram. It’s sort of almost like it’s diluting our actor’s job.

STAN: That brings me to something I’m curious to ask you about “The Morning Show.” Did you find anything different with it being a streaming service? Or how did you approach the dialogue piece of this?

ANISTON: Well, “Friends” was — half-hour was so easy compared … I mean, you had an audience.

STAN: That sounds like the most terrifying thing ever.

ANISTON: And by the way, every actor who was a film actor who came onto our show, they were terrified. It was like, “Who are these people laughing at what I’m saying?” I think “The Morning Show” feels like you’re shooting a film, although you’re covering much more real estate a day. The dialogue for me, I would take every Sunday, and I would hammer the whole week out with my acting coach. We would spend three hours, sometimes four, just going over every scene so that I became comfortable. I’m speaking like someone who is way smarter than myself.

STAN: Did you watch anyone in specific?

ANISTON: My dream human is Diane Sawyer. I had a wonderful dinner at her house right before we started. And the stories were endless and fascinating. And Gayle King was great. Chris Cuomo was great. Hoda. They were excited too, because it is such a world behind the scenes of what goes on.

STAN: I’m always just amazed that their day starts at 3 in the morning.

ANISTON: It’s a very strange nocturnal existence. There were nights where Diane said she wanted to live her life with her husband and go to the theater, and she just would stay awake. And then, recover on the weekends. She said she couldn’t make the coffee at home because her husband would smell it and wake up — so she would sneak out of the house, run to work and make her coffee. Very considerate of her.

STAN: In terms of Alex and Mitch’s relationship, did you guys always know at the end of Season 1 where it was going to go? And some of those twists and turns, particularly with Italy and so on?

ANISTON: No. We had to reimagine. After we went on summer break, [showrunner] Kerry Ehrin would think about Season 2 and gave us the little bullet points. And I was supposed to start in rehab, like for mental health. And we always knew Mitch was going to die. He went to do coverage on a war. He blew up in a building or whatever. It was just like, “This is so violent.” But then this played out beautifully with him being sent to exile in Italy to live in his shame. Have you always wanted to be an actor?

STAN: I guess I was like really good at impressions or something. My mom used to bring me out when we had people over.

ANISTON: And your first big break was “Gossip Girl”?

STAN: “Law & Order.” Jerry Orbach.

ANISTON: I went to high school with his son. Are you a good auditioner?

STAN: I don’t know. I didn’t mind it so much.

ANISTON: That’s good. I was terrified of it. I would walk into that room just shaking. It’s a shock I ever got hired. Let’s be clear. My first job was a Bob’s Big Boy commercial.

STAN: Really?

ANISTON: I couldn’t get hired for like two years because I was just my own worst enemy walking into a room. You would have been a great cast member on “Friends.” You would have been a Joey.

STAN: There are so many times where I’ve gone through a lot of lonely nights with “Friends,” I will tell you.

ANISTON: It’s a friend to have in the room sometimes.

STAN: And my friends would always go around and be like, “Who are you most like?” I always came closest to Chandler, because I get very sort of neurotic. And I just used to die laughing. Coming back to Rachel for the “Friends” reunion, I can’t even imagine how surreal that experience must have been. How did it feel, seeing everybody? Is it cathartic? Or is it weirdly the same goose bumps come back? It’s so familiar.

ANISTON: It was all of the above, honestly. I don’t know we expected for it to sucker punch us as hard as it did in the emotional gut. We just had the idea this is going to be so fun — we’re going back to the sets exactly the way they were. And literally, every single nook on a shelf was the same. It was so creepy. But each and every one of us, we walked in, it was just like, “Oh!”.

STAN: Yeah.

ANISTON: Time travel. It was ’04 when it ended. And we were different. We were so little. Our lives were ahead of us. And so much has changed. We kind of had rose-colored glasses going into it. And then, it was like, “This is really a lot heavier than I thought.” But I wouldn’t change a lick of it. Every time we all get together, it’s just like no time has passed. We basically grew up together, and taught each other a lot. We’re each other’s fall guy because the world was happening. We were exploding, and that kind of notoriety was sudden. And we were in these four walls doing the show, and this insanity is happening. And thank God we had each other, because we really couldn’t talk about it outside. It was before social media, so we still had some sanity.

STAN: I’m thinking if you had social media when “Friends” was happening, it’s almost like I’m sure the network would have said, “Hey, can we get a TikTok video of you guys?” And so much of that was preserved for the screen. And that’s why I sometimes wonder: Are we without some of that mystery?

ANISTON: I get very nostalgic about the past. I also find it interesting that people still love it today, because what are they relating to? You look over at a table of four people having a meal. And there’s usually three people on a phone, just scrolling mindlessly.

STAN: And you guys are on the couch and reading the paper and talking over coffee.

ANISTON: I have a really weird question. This has nothing to do with anything. You know how there’s this new thing where everyone says, “It’s tech neck,” because you’re looking down on your phone? Didn’t people do the same thing when they read the newspaper and books? So why is tech neck a new thing?

STAN: I —

ANISTON: I don’t know. Just thought I’d throw it out there. By the way, working on green screen, how do you feel about the Marvel movies? I mean, that’s got to be tedious, right?

STAN: I feel like it’s more opportunities to get distracted. You’re looking over there and it’s a planet, and there’s a cliff and all these people are coming — and you’re just staring at a wall. It’s bizarre. I’d love to be able to have things to interact off.

ANISTON: An actor, an actual person.

STAN: And not a tennis ball. But then, it also just makes you use your imagination in a different way. I never discriminate between any type of genre.

ANISTON: Do you have a favorite?

STAN: If I could just live in “Notting Hill” the movie forever, I would.

ANISTON: Is that a romcom? Why do they have such a bad rap these days, because wouldn’t that be fun to do one?

STAN: It would be.

ANISTON: Wanna do it?

STAN: Do you wanna?

ANISTON: I do.

STAN: Do one in a second with you.

ANISTON: Shooting in New York City?

STAN: Yeah, yeah. That sounds great. They could probably write that very quickly.

ANISTON: Great. We’re gonna do a rom-com. So exciting. We’re bringing them back

Today is our special lady’s birthday celebrating her 53rd year on this earth! 53? I refuse to believe it as Jen is an ageless godess. 😍

To Celebrate her birthday I have added a bunch of Outtakes from Previous shoots from the following Instyle Magazine (2019) and alongside a never before seen Photoshoot for Aveeno,2013!

I’d also like to thank my amazing friend Sparrow for her amazing Birthday Graphic she made for this post to celebrate Jen’s birthday for me! And the amazing Watermark tag she made for the Outtakes, thankyou so much!😍❤️ Be sure to visit her website on the incredible Kat Dennings.

Be sure to check out this incredible project designed by Nicole who is an amazing artist and Jen fan! she designed a fan magazine in the style of Jen’s favorite NewYorker Magazine and it is really incredible!😍

Be sure to also check out Court’s amazing project for Jen’s birthday as well with Fansitons around the world!❤️

The second season of “The Morning Show,” the starry Apple TV+ series about a “Good Morning America”-style talk show, was six weeks into filming in March 2020 when everything suddenly stopped cold.

“It was a Wednesday night, and we were discussing a scene that I had to shoot the next day,” recalled Jennifer Aniston, who plays one of the co-anchors of the fictional show-within-the-show and is also an executive producer of the series. “We were getting emails saying that this big company and that big company were shutting down. And then we hear that Tom and Rita got sick” — that would be Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, who contracted Covid early in the pandemic — “and all of a sudden the world is caving in on us.”

The production shut down March 11, the cast and crew scattered and the producers pondered how the show could go ahead. And when they returned (remotely) and decided to rework the season, their most immediate challenge was how to incorporate coronavirus into the story line, when the pandemic had just begun and no one knew how it would play out.

This mirrored, in fact, what happened during the first season, when events in the world — in that case, the ructions over the #MeToo movement — overtook what had been the script.

“The Morning Show,” introduced to great fanfare as the marquee program on the new Apple TV+ streaming service in 2019, was loosely inspired by Brian Stelter’s nonfiction book “Top of the Morning,” about the cutthroat politics of morning television. But while at first it was concerned mostly with the infighting between Alex Levy (Aniston) and her co-anchor Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon), it revamped itself with broader ambitions that reflected the changes wrought by #MeToo.

After unmasking Alex’s former co-anchor, Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), as a serial sexual predator, the show explored the repercussions for his victims as well as for those at the network who ignored, enabled or colluded in his behavior.

The first season ended with Alex and Bradley making explosive on-air revelations about UBA’s sexually toxic work environment. The second, which premiered earlier this month, begins months later, on New Year’s Eve 2019, with Bradley assigned to Times Square ball-drop broadcast duty and Alex, who has left the network, mulling over whether to return.

It’s a moment of seeming innocence, as the characters put to rest the difficulties of 2019 and look happily ahead to 2020, unaware of the iceberg lurking beneath the water. “It’s a new year,” Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup), UBA’s Machiavellian chief executive (he has been promoted since last season), says jauntily, as the sounds of “Auld Lang Syne” swell up in an emotional montage. “Things are looking up.”

Well. We have already heard mention of a “mysterious respiratory illness.” And then Cory spots an item on the news ticker: the family of Hannah, a young employee who slept with Mitch and later died of an overdose, has filed a wrongful-death suit against the network. And then there is perhaps the most ominous development of all, when a woman standing behind Cory sneezes and the episode ends with a thud.

‘Are We Just Going to Ignore This?’
The shutdown caused the show’s writers, led by Kerry Ehrin, to go back and rework everything.

“For a topical show that looks at the world as it is, the question was, ‘Are we going to just ignore this?’” said Michael Ellenberg, an executive producer and the chief executive of Media Res, the studio behind the series. That would be impossible, they decided.

“We had to address the times we were in, and so our first conversation was how to do it. Kerry was adamant that we did not want to speculate about the future — how long the pandemic would last, would it end, what it would look like after,” he added. “And so we quickly settled on this idea of, let’s look at the windup to the pandemic, when things are building and all the while there’s this bomb under the table.”

Season 2 is set in the first three months of 2020. The virus has struck China and is slowly gathering force to overtake the rest of the world. At the same time, a reckoning is coming for many of the characters, as they struggle with their own identities and with a changing understanding of power, race and privilege in and out of work.

Angry that he has been passed over to host a presidential debate, Danny (Desean Terry), a reporter on the show-within-the-show, demands to know what it is — being gay? Being Black? — that has impeded his career. Stella (Greta Lee), the blunt-speaking new president of UBA’s news division who is Asian American, agonizes about whether she was hired as a token, even as she is subjected to Trump-style racial slurs about the coronavirus on the street. Yanko Flores (Nestor Carbonell), the beloved Cuban American weatherman, is accused of appropriating Indigenous culture after he uses the expression “spirit animal” on the air, and then attacked again when his apology is deemed insufficiently sincere.

Bradley struggles with her sexuality and her relationship with her conservative, dysfunctional family. (A delicious new character, the network anchor Laura Peterson, played by Julianna Margulies at her feline best, figures prominently in this plotline.)

Meanwhile, Mitch, who is now persona non grata and has retreated to a cavernous villa in Italy in the wake of his disgrace, struggles with whether he has a right to any post-cancellation life at all. And Alex, her marriage over and her assumptions about the world in tatters, excavates and re-examines her relationship with Mitch — a man she worked beside, and loved, for many years.

“The first season dealt with the #MeToo movement and its repercussions — turning over the rocks and seeing what’s underneath,” said Mimi Leder, the director and an executive producer of the series. “The second season deals with identity. We’re asking a lot of tough questions about cancel culture, sexuality, race and the like. We’re asking our characters to examine who they really are.”

At a time when it feels brave to acknowledge that all sexual misconduct is not created equal, “The Morning Show” wades directly into the issue. Younger characters are at odds with older characters, and there are varying opinions on how to view once-acceptable behavior that is now verboten. Is it OK, for example, to think that there is anything redeemable about Mitch?

“The question is, how do we have more grace as human beings toward each other?” Witherspoon, who is also an executive producer, said in an interview. “What about people who are genuinely contrite, or who have committed forgivable offenses? I don’t think, as a society, we’ve gotten there yet.”

The fictional changes on the show mirror the real changes in the industry, Witherspoon said. Among other things, she said, there is now mandatory harassment training before filming — something that would have been unthinkable even a few years ago.

“There is so much more thoughtfulness about people’s emotional well-being,” she said. “It feels like a safer environment to create in. It all has complexity, but I’m thankful for a safer workplace.”

An Emotional Sucker Punch
Filming started again in the fall of 2020, before Covid-19 vaccines became available. Some cast and crew members had moved away, or did not feel safe working, and did not return. The production halted several more times, not because anyone fell ill, but because of government restrictions. As with other shows that shot during the pandemic, the production developed rigorous protocols about testing, hygiene, protective equipment and behavior on set, even as the characters were maskless while shooting their scenes.

It was a fraught time to film, Aniston said, compounded by the weightiness of the material. (The season features a lot of confronting, reconsidering, reckoning and dramatic weeping.)

“As someone who usually lives with a skip in their step and a smile on their face — I was screamed out and cried out and emoted out by the end,” she said. “It took weeks for my eyes to de-puff from all the emotions.”

Even as this was going on, Aniston and her “Friends” castmates filmed their long-anticipated, and several-times-delayed, reunion episode. To return, at this grave moment, to the lighthearted show that so defined her career was another head-spinning experience, Aniston said.

“We all had such blissful ignorance going into the reunion,” she said. “We were thinking, ‘How much fun is this going to be, to go back to Stage 24 exactly the way it was, exactly the way we left it.’ But it was a sucker punch to the heart. It turns out that it’s not so easy to time travel.”

When “Friends” wrapped up after a decade, in 2004, “we were all bright eyed and bushy-tailed, looking toward the future,” she continued. “But there was a lot to come for everyone — hard truths and changes and loss and babies and marriages and divorces and miscarriages. One of the real emotional things for me was the realization was that times were so much simpler then. For one thing, we didn’t have social media the way we have now.”

There have been no announcements about a possible Season 3 of “The Morning Show,” but it’s clear that there are many things still to explore, not least how the characters might move on from the traumas of 2020. Beyond the pandemic, there is still the open question of what happens to people caught in the maw of public scandals.

“I hope we’re taking a moment to pause when agitated, and to take each case as it comes, and to use due process,” Aniston said. “It’s too easy when, with one click of a button, someone just disappears.” New York Times

Jennifer Aniston has launched her first cruelty free Vegan Beauty Range “LolaVie” you can buy a range of products such as a Glossing Detangler and more on their website!

 

 

 

 

 

 

While better known as an actress, producer, and entrepreneur, what you may not know about Jennifer Aniston is that she’s obsessed with medical journals, technological advances, and the latest beauty and health innovations. Her vision for LolaVie is to combine the best of science and nature. With this brand, she wants to prove that you don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.

From overseeing product development to marketing to creative direction, Jen has been the driving force behind the brand. She has spent countless hours making sure formulations live up to her standards.

LolaVie creates products that are effective, smart, and unfussy – ones that solve real problems without the fluff. We are very intentional by introducing one product at a time. We want to make sure we get our formulations right and being thoughtful in the products we create takes time.

Who is “Lola?” Someone who owns who they are, believes in themselves, and does things their own way. They live the Lola life. LolaVie, Naturally You.

Sustainability : LolaVie is committed to doing its part for the planet and to being more sustainable. In addition to using recyclable packaging wherever possible, we’re proud to fortify our products with bamboo essence instead of de-ionized (common) water. Scroll below to find out why we’re so passionate about these initiatives.

CRUELTY-FREE
We love our pets – like Clyde here – and quite frankly, all animals. As a Leaping Bunny certified company, we do not conduct, commission or act as a party to any animal testing. Not only are our formulas cruelty-free, but all our suppliers and manufacturers must comply with our cruelty-free criteria as well.

 

It’s now been 27 years since Jennifer Aniston debuted on Friends, hurtling at a speed she could not control into our pop cultural consciousness. It’s ironic that, against the odds, she is one of the more anchored people you will meet. That choice was early and deliberate: Aniston’s close circle of friends has remained largely consistent since she first moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1989. That said, she is not shut off, sitting in complacency behind her security gates in the L.A. hills. Aniston spent the pandemic both in review (of the rituals of her life, what could stay and what needed to go) and in action (filming the second season of The Morning Show, which premieres September 17, under demanding COVID protocols). She remains an optimist, her perspective couched in quick wit, wry humor, and an evocative way of describing emotional currency: “[With Friends], we created something that landed its little flag on a lot of people’s hearts around the world.” Whether she planned it or not, Aniston did too.

Laura Brown: Jen, congratulations on InStyle’s September cover, which will make your career. You were desperate, and I said, “Fine, you can have the cover.”

Jennifer Aniston: Please! Bring me back to life, Laura.

LB: How did you “net out” of the COVID pandemic, do you think?

JA: There was so much good and so much horror all happening at once. For me, the good was a big decompression and an inventory of “What’s it all about?” You and I, we like to work and be busy. Being idle is not preferable. It was important for those who were willing to let it be a reset to slowdown, take all of this in, reassess, reevaluate, and excavate. Literally cleaning out crap that we don’t need.

LB: What have you reset?

JA: My level of anxiety has gone down by eliminating the unnecessary sort of fat in life that I had thought was necessary. Also realizing that you can’t please everybody. And what good does that do if you’re just little bits of yourself? Let’s try to be the full all of who we are so we can come to the table. The way the media presents us folk in this business is like we’re always trotting around the world, on beaches having fun. But there are a lot of other, less obvious things that go into it.

LB: How will you approach things that make you anxious when you do press for The Morning Show?

JA: I call it the dog-and-pony show — traveling to do press junkets, red carpets, the shiny-penny things. Do people really need all that? The work is what I love to do. It’s the promotion of it that creates some stress in me. You get, like, a second of what it is that you’re promoting, and then the rest of it is salacious crap that you somehow got wrangled into talking about. There’s a big appetite for that — and listen, I get it. But if you don’t give it, then they make it up.

LB: In the trailer for Season 2 of The Morning Show, your character, Alex, very publicly says bye-bye to TV and retreats to a more private life. Could you imagine doing that?

JA: Well, we all kind of did. So, yes, I can imagine it, and it would be wonderful for about three months. Then you’re like, “This is good — I’ve rearranged and cleaned out everything; I’ve read; I’ve meditated. I feel great. Now I’d like to see a person.”

As my acting teacher used to say, “If you allow it to be, acting is a healing craft.”

JENNIFER ANISTON
LB: What was the biggest challenge filming in a pandemic?

JA: [As] actors, we were living in an alternate universe where COVID did not exist. I was able to walk into it pretty centered, knowing we had an incredible epidemiology team. I missed seeing my crew’s faces — that was tough. I also wasn’t with Reese [Witherspoon, her co-star] or the rest of the cast as often as in the first season. But the writing is incredible.

LB: How confident do you feel in your performance?

JA: I don’t know. [Alex] was not a fun headspace to live in — I’m not that insane or neurotic or inconsistent in my moods. I’d leave the set some days not able to shake it. Then it lifts like a cloud, and it’s like, “Wow. I feel lighter. The manhole cover has been taken off my back.” As my acting teacher used to say, “If you allow it to be, acting is a healing craft.”

LB: I understand wanting to be someone else for a minute and learning from it. What role are you most proud of in your career?

JA: I am very proud of this role. I also love Dr. Julia in Horrible Bosses — she was just wackadoodle. And I was proud of Cake.

LB: On the Friends reunion special, you said you almost lost the role of Rachel because you were on Muddling Through at the time. Can you imagine a universe where you couldn’t get off that show?

JA: No. Just one little moment — a last-minute audition [for Friends] that I got at 6 o’clock the night before I had to be there — and boom.

LB: Obviously, the reunion elicited many things for the audience, but what stayed with you afterward?

JA: That this is eternal. It’s not just out there in the ether or on a television set you’ve passed by, but in our actual bodies — our DNA, our bloodstream, our cells. It was a unicorn of an experience. For whatever reason, we were all at the right place at the right time, and we created something that landed its little flag on a lot of people’s hearts around the world.

LB: And you hadn’t been together shooting something in 17 years, but you see Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox all the time in L.A. And then the guys, you know, Ross—

JA: [David] Schwimmer? You can call him Ross. He lives in New York.

LB: Because you’re on a break.

JA: Yeah, still. It’s the longest break.

LB: Did you all have any time together that wasn’t filmed?

JA: We tried, but we didn’t get a chance. We had endless Zooms. I had a couple of people over [that] Sunday, just with the kids and stuff. Schwimmer stopped by, so I got to meet his amazing little girl. But we really did make a commitment to each other. We were like, “That’s the last time we wait that long to see each other.”

LB: And when you do that, bring a camera.

JA: You know, Courteney and David are the directors in the group, so they can probably figure out how to set up even three cameras.

LB: Well, if Courteney directs it like she does her epic Instagram…

JA: I know! It’s like, “Did you bring a dolly [camera] to Disneyland?”

RELATED: Courteney Cox on Her Friends Reunion Emmys Nomination

LB: You didn’t join Instagram until late 2019, but now you are very deft with it. Would you ever join TikTok?

JA: No. But I also said that about Instagram.

LB: Did you know you have a TikTok doppelgänger who lipsynchs your Friends lines?

JA: A friend sent that to me — I watched it, and it freaked me out. She’s not exactly like me, but of all the people who have said, “I look just like you,” she was pretty close. Sometimes you say, “Thanks?” And other times it’s, “Wow, thank you.”

LB: Who has done the best impression of you?

JA: Vanessa Bayer on Saturday Night Live. I remember someone saying, “Did you see the impression of you on SNL?” My first response was, “What? No, I’m not impression [-worthy].” They played it for me and [gasps], “That is so not the way I sound.” Then I was like, “Uh, oh. Oh, I see.” Everyone said it was a compliment, but I had to really get my brain around that and tuck my little tail between my legs, thinking I’m being made fun of. That’s always the gut instinct: “They’re making fun of me.”

LB: How does it feel to see impressions of or posts about you? Like the New Yorker cartoon about mock turtlenecks, Rachel Green’s go-to. Do you ever get used to it?

JA: Oh, yes, I re-posted that. When I see those things, I think it’s funny. I’m an easy laugh. I like off-color humor and self-deprecation and humanity. Dumb things I do make me laugh.

LB: On the red carpet, you give this compelling look of faint interest. I remember taking a picture with you once and whispering with a clenched jaw, “I don’t know how you do this.”

JA: And I said, “This is how we do it. We clench jaws together, say fake nothings, and make each other laugh eventually!”

LB: How did you figure out your best red-carpet pose?

JA: It depends on your stylist, because they go, “Never do this! Always do this!” I’m like, “Well, that feels weird.” I don’t know how to stand on a red carpet, but you do the best you can. I also try to connect with those people holding cameras. Some of them I’ve known a long time, so I’ll say hello. If I’m having an honest interaction with someone, it makes it easier. You know who I think masters the red carpet?

LB: Who?

JA: J.Lo. I want to know what gives her the look like she’s about to be seething. It’s amazing. She’s almost stuck getting mad at somebody, but she’s just so gorgeous. She’s like, “I can’t believe I’m standing here.” But I don’t think she’s trying; she fell out of bed that way. She’s a performer.

RELATED: Jennifer Lopez in Her Own Words (and Everyone Else’s) for the May 2021 InStyle Cover

LB: It’s a lifestyle. [laughs] A lot of actresses around our age say that the ’90s were the greatest because there wasn’t social media. But then you see how some women, like Britney Spears, were treated by the media. How do you look back on that time now?

JA: [They were] feeding on young, impressionable girls. Half of these kids started on The Mickey Mouse Club. I was lucky enough to be raised by a very strict mother. The priorities were not about becoming a famous person. It was, “Study your craft, learn what you’re doing, don’t just go out there and get lucky.” I waitressed for years. I got a Bob’s Big Boy commercial on my 900th commercial audition. I was doing theater on, like, Long Island. I think that [Spears’s] group of girls as teens didn’t have any kind of “Who am I?” They were being defined by this outside source. The media took advantage of that, capitalized on them, and it ultimately cost them their sanity. It’s so heartbreaking.

LB: You were in your mid-20s when Friends started. How did you build up your own mental fortress?

JA: Um, spiritual Teflon. People used to call it your “spiritual armor.” Once I moved to L.A. and [started] telemarketing and auditioning, that’s when I built the foundation of women who surround me. I went to my first Circle — someone said we were going to what they called at the time a Goddess Circle. I was like, “Sorry, a what?” They said, “We’re going to hold this thing called a sage stick and burn away dark energy.” I was like, “OK, I’ve really landed in Los Angeles. From New York City to Laurel Canyon.” It sounds woo-woo, but meeting creative women who are not all in this business was my touchstone. My social arena wasn’t in this [industry].

LB: And these women are still your closest friends. When ill winds would blow for you in the media, was it like an armadillo where they just covered you in a shell?

JA: Yeah. They protect you: “Bullshit. Don’t listen to that.” I remember the first time a story came out — back then there were ways you could find out the source, and it was people from high school. That’s when you realize people are capable of not-so-kind things. It was like, this is someone who’s feeling inferior toward someone who’s having success. And they handle it by trying to capitalize on some silly story [from] high school.

I’m ambitious to be a happy, content, fulfilled human being, without regrets.

JENNIFER ANISTON
LB: You could have decided, “I can’t trust anyone.” But you are extremely curious. How did you reconcile that — especially with marriage and divorce in between — and stay open to new things?

JA: Therapy. A wonderful amount of trying to understand it. Also, being given examples of what I do not want to become, seeing people I love get lost and lose the plot. You can only help someone as much as they’re willing to be helped. I believe that at the core of everyone, there is goodness. I’ve watched people in my life go through hardships and hold on to resentment that eats away [at them]. Forgiveness is not in their vocabulary. That’s a real shame, because it’s important to be able to forgive people. Certain things are unforgivable, and we can just put those in a little file. But there’s room for people to grow and change.

LB: Who have you enjoyed getting to know recently?

JA: I met [Harvard biologist and researcher on aging] Dr. David Sinclair a few years ago. I’ve really loved meeting doctors and scientists, especially given what we’ve been living through. I’m listening to this podcast [about maximizing productivity] right now called The Tim Ferriss Show. [Neuroscientist] Andrew Huberman too. I’m having a hard time sleeping, so I’m trying to understand our circadian rhythms.

LB: Are you not sleeping because you’re listening to the podcast about not sleeping?

JA: Probably. As soon as the Morning Show brain shutdown, I went under the covers to recover from that. But Murder Mystery 2 [with Adam Sandler, whom Aniston has been friends with for 30 years] just got green-lit, and we start filming in the fall, so that’s keeping my mind busy. I want it to be good. I want it to be different. It’s always, “How do we improve?”

LB: How many sleep apps do you have?

JA: Five, maybe? I have this little device just for sleep apps and meditations, and I’ve been trying to go to bed earlier. It’s hard. The world shuts down, the phone stops ringing, and that’s when I can have “me time.” I can watch a show and just sort of putter.

LB: But then you get up and exercise every day, right?

JA: I try to. I had an injury last fall and I was only able to do Pilates, which I absolutely love. But I was missing that kind of sweat when you just go for it. I’m going back to my 15-15-15, which is a 15-minute spin, elliptical, run. And then just old school: I can chase myself around a gym. I need some kind of movement, even if it’s just 10 minutes a day on a trampoline.

LB: What do you eat if you’re stressed?

JA: A chip. Crunch, crunch, crunch.LB: Just one chip?

JA: Usually. I’m good at that. I can have one M&M, one chip. I know, that’s so annoying.

LB: Can you feel my contempt ooze through the screen? What is your go-to drink?

JA: A margarita — clean, no sugar — or a dirty martini. I only have two to three drinks, tops, and I don’t do exotic. When someone asks, “Would you like a cranberry-coconut-cucumber-spiced or hibiscus whatever?” No, I would not. But when I moved into my house, a few people got me tequilas of the month as housewarming gifts. I have a cellar of all kinds of spirits — you could come here and probably order anything you wanted to.

LB: Besides tequila, what makes you feel your strongest?

JA: Good sleep. That’s when our cells are rejuvenating, right?

LB: You really do love science. Would you be a good doctor?

JA: I’d be a great doctor. A dermatologist, or [specializing in] wellness or genetics or holistic [medicine]. The whole thing fascinates me.

LB: I think you should show up at a doctor’s office somewhere like, “Don’t mind me!”

JA: I’ve done that in my friends’ delivery rooms. I’ve gotten down there to see what was going on, held the foot. I had a front-row seat at the show; I was the first face the baby saw. The doctor said, “Excuse me, please. You’re in my light.”

RELATED: TikTok’s Most Famous Dermatologists Debunk the Platform’s Most Viral Beauty Trends

LB: Speaking of people who need doctors, you’re a notorious fan of The Bachelor.

JA: You think they need doctors? [laughs] They all need help.

LB: Would you ever guest-host now that it’s up for grabs?

JA: God, I don’t know. I think they need a psychologist or psychiatrist, not just Chris Harrison — or whoever the host is now. There should be someone they can go and talk to.

LB: That could be you.

JA: OK, well, I’ll do that. Gladly. I’ll be the one picking roses in the rose garden.

LB: Besides that, what are you ambitious for?

JA: Honestly, I have not ever been an ambitious person. [Ambition] just means happiness. I’m ambitious to be a happy, content, fulfilled human being, without regrets about things I knew I could have done and didn’t do.

LB: What women do you think are “badass”?

JA: Gloria Steinem. Diane Keaton. Oprah. Women who have lived a life — their authentic life — without apologies.

LB: When was the first time you really owned your shit?

JA: Probably when I moved to California. I thought, “I live on my own. I have a car. I’m a telemarketer. And I own that shit.” I was feeling kind of awesome. As you keep reaching new levels, it’s important to fall off that cloud to be reminded and humbled and to get back on it. Then you have something else to strive for.

LB: Speaking of striving, do you know there was a frenzy on the Deuxmoi Instagram account where people tried to figure out what dog collars you buy?

JA: It’s funny you should say that, because the collars are so cool. My trainer’s friend makes them — the brand is called RN Design. I’ve received a lot of questions about the dog collars. And what is Deuxmoi?

LB: It has posts like “Famous person spotted at restaurant.”

JA: What prompts the question about dog collars if I’m shown at dinner? That’s what I’d like to get to the bottom of.

RELATED: 14 Fashion Rules Jennifer Aniston Lives By

LB: Didn’t People magazine ask if you were going to go on [high-end dating site] Raya?

JA: Who did not ask me if I was going to go on Raya? Who would? Here’s the thing. These so-called anonymous places where so-called well-known people can go … I guess the reason well-known people go is because the people in the well-known areas don’t discuss well-known people. Please. No.

LB: The assumption is you guys want to date each other in your “safe, sanctioned space.”

JA: Yes. We have our own little island called the Celebrity Island.

LB: Imagine if all celebrities lived on one island and you couldn’t get off.

JA: I mean, that would not be great. For anybody. But honestly, the best version of The Bachelor is the island — Bachelor in Paradise.

LB: Besides Bachelor shows, what is usually on your TV?

JA: The news. CNN. I’ve really had to stop [keeping it on too much]. We all went through news fatigue, panic fatigue, during the pandemic because we were hoping one day we would wake up and hear something hopeful, and all we got was more insanity.

LB: Our worst of times. We could not see the way out.

JA: No. And there’s still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don’t listen to the facts. It’s a real shame. I’ve just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate. I feel it’s your moral and professional obligation to inform, since we’re not all podded up and being tested every single day. It’s tricky because everyone is entitled to their own opinion — but a lot of opinions don’t feel based in anything except fear or propaganda.

LB: Exactly. This whole time has been a real tell on people’s capacities. But you’ve managed to get a lot done during your time off. Plus, your hair is even blonder now.

JA: I know. I just sat out in the sun for 1,600 days straight and this is what happened.

Lead Image: Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello turtleneck. Alberta Ferretti pants. Lisa Eisner Jewelry necklace.

Photography by Emma Summerton/Dawes+Co. Styling by Julia von Boehm. Hair by Chris McMillan/Solo Artists. Makeup by Gucci Westman/The Wall Group. Manicure by Diem Truong/Star Touch Agency. Set design by Robert Doran/Frank Reps. Production by Dana Brockman/Viewfinders.

For more stories like this, pick up the September 2021 issue of InStyle, available on newsstands, on Amazon, and for digital download Aug. 13th.

Jennifer has been featured on this weeks edition of People’s Magazine with a brand new stunning Photoshoot! I have added the Scans & Images from the shoot to our gallery, enjoy!

Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer reminisce together about their beloved show

The six stars of Friends were overcome with emotion.

Walking back onto Stage 24 at Warner Bros. studios, the former castmates — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — were taken aback by the site of meticulously recreated sets of a world they hadn’t visited in 17 years: Joey and Chandler’s bachelor pad, Monica and Rachel’s apartment, even Central Perk, where the thrift-store-find orange couch was always reserved for them.

“I was flooded with 10 years of irreplaceable memories,” Cox, 56, tells PEOPLE exclusively in this week’s cover story.

For more of the exclusive interview with the Friends cast, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.

THR-Six top actresses get real about everything from dismantling systemic racism (“It can’t just be, ‘We’re going to march with you and do a hashtag'”) to fighting typecasting (“For the life of me, I could not escape ‘Rachel from “Friends”‘”).

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Drama Actress Roundtable was set to take place two weeks before it actually did. But as the country hit a boil, erupting in protest following the killing of George Floyd, its early June timing no longer felt right.

The actresses — The Morning Show‘s Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon (also of Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies), Homecoming‘s Janelle Monáe, Euphoria‘s Zendaya, Mrs. America‘s Rose Byrne and The Crown‘s Helena Bonham Carter — collectively decided they needed the space and time to properly process what was happening around them. And with it, a chance to listen and learn.

When the sextet ultimately came to the (virtual) table on June 20, they spoke candidly about their own reckonings along with their professional fears and the power that they, as women, have now like never before. As Witherspoon says at one point, “We know that we matter.”

We are living through a unique moment in history, both with the pandemic and, more recently, the social unrest. What have you learned about yourselves during this time?

REESE WITHERSPOON A lot, and I’m continuing to learn. I think being an awake, aware, conscious, empathetic, thoughtful human being, if you have even an ounce of any of that, it’s pretty exhausting and morally trying. And it’s been a time to really dig deep and examine what are you doing in your life and in your business and in your work and really look at those things with new eyes.

JENNIFER ANISTON And having the [space] to be alone and not be distracted has been almost divine timing in terms of the order of how everything has unfolded. I think that’s a blessing of this pandemic because there wasn’t any chance for people to get distracted going back to work or going out to dinners or whatever. We were all pulled together, and it feels extremely unifying and oddly beautiful. And I’ve never read more in my life.

HELENA BONHAM CARTER I’m over here in London, and it’s extraordinary that there is one thing that has unified us all and yet we are all having very different experiences, depending on your privilege, your situation economically and also your health. I haven’t been directly affected or known anyone who’s been badly affected by COVID, so it’s the luxury of time that we don’t [ordinarily] have. It’s fascinating that we have to rely on the whole world stopping for us to stop.

ANISTON Yeah.

BONHAM CARTER And with the Black Lives [Matter] movement, because it’s happening now, we have the time to properly consider it and see what everyone can do about it. People have said, “Do you think it would have happened if COVID hadn’t happened?” And I feel unfortunately not.

ANISTON I agree with you.

BONHAM CARTER Everyone has the time and the space to actually change society on a profound level. But it’s extraordinary living through history. We are very privileged. And I know that this time for me has been utterly precious and I think I’ll come away with things that are profoundly changed. Also, as an actor, it’s a nice thing because everybody is as unemployed as I am and I don’t have to worry about it. You’re always looking over your shoulder. (Laughter.)