Apple TV+(LOS ANGELES) — After Friends ended in 2004, Jennifer Aniston waited 15 years before accepting her next major television role, a choice she says was deliberate. When the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show was first pitched to her, she jumped at the opportunity.
Speaking to LA Times, the 51-year-old actress says playing Alex Levy on the show offered her an honest reflection of her own experiences when she skyrocketed to fame in the 90s.
“That show was 20 years of therapy wrapped into 10 episodes,” Aniston dished. “There were times when I would read a scene and feel like a whole manhole cover was taken off my back.”
As for how the show served as a literal foil to her experience with fame, the Friends actress explained, “[It was] interesting for me to look at how I always have tried to normalize being fine and ‘everything’s great, you know, this is all normal,’ and then there are moments when you have your private breakdown or your ‘Calgon, take me away’ moments” — referring to a bath and beauty product that ran a campaign in the 70s and 80s targeting stressed housewives who really needed a break.
There was a scene in the second episode of The Morning Show where Alex, who is about to walk a red carpet, has a breakdown in the limo after her show is rocked when her male co-anchor is fired for sexual harassment.
“There have been moments — not to that level of hysteria — but moments of ‘I don’t want to f****** go here,’ ‘I don’t want to walk out onto the carpet,’ ‘I don’t want to be seen,’ ‘I don’t want to be looked at and everyone’s going to be talking about me and judging me,'” said Aniston, saying that scene was incredibly satisfying.
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