Twenty years ago exactly, Jennifer Aniston gave her first post-divorce, post-Brad Pitt interview to Vanity Fair. It was for VF’s September 2005 issue. That interview is gossip history, it’s part of the gossip sacred texts, and it jump-started the larger “uncool Bermuda Triangle” storyline which dominated the tabloids and gossip blogs for more than a decade. Twenty years later, and Jennifer is still here. This is actually her first VF cover since the 2005 one. She’s currently promoting The Morning Show and her life in her 50s, surrounded by longtime friends and chosen family, and on the cusp of a new love with Jim Curtis (while Curtis is referenced in this piece, she doesn’t say much about him). You can read the full VF piece here. Some highlights:
On fame: She views paparazzi when she’s working as “almost an embarrassment, to be honest.” Aniston’s celebrity, as gravity-pulling as it can be, has never defined her: “I’ve always been more into metaphysical things and ‘What if there’s something bigger out there than all of us?’ ” She’s learned not to put everything at the altar of fame. “It’s not real,” she tells me. “My interests are other than that.”
The goddess circle: “That opened me up to the importance of women in each other’s lives and how important it is to support and hold each other up when so many want to tear each other down.”
She considers Gwyneth Paltrow a close friend now: While discussing the genesis of her and Paltrow’s relationship, Aniston says, “Ironically, I went to her and Brad’s engagement party,” meaning Pitt, the man who proposed to them both. Aniston and Paltrow’s friendship outlasted both women’s Pitt chapters, but I can’t help but ask, do they ever talk about Pitt? “Oh, of course… How can we not? We’re girls.” But they trade wellness intel more than gossip. “We’re always swapping advice—‘What are you doing for this? What are you doing for that? Do you have a new doctor for that?’ ”
On her infamous 2005 VF profile: “I haven’t looked at that article in forever. I just remember the experience of doing it—which was kind of jarring. It was also such a vulnerable time. But yeah, that was one for the memoirs.” (She’ll write a memoir, she says, “when I have more to memoir.”) “Journalism back then felt more like a form of a sport. There’s obviously some PTSD we all have, which is why these scare me”—she means interviews—“How are they going to misinterpret my words or take something out of context? And one line nowadays…”
On the uncool Bermuda triangle of it all: Aniston calls that era of her tabloid life “the love triangle” and details her survival approach: “Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and keep on walking, girl…. It was such juicy reading for people. If they didn’t have their soap operas, they had their tabloids. It’s a shame that it had to happen, but it happened. And boy did I take it personally. They were sort of building us up and then tearing you down… I didn’t have a strong enough constitution to not get affected by it. We’re human beings, even though some people don’t want to believe we are. They think, You signed up for it, so you take it. But we really didn’t sign up for that.”
Whether Jon Hamm’s TMS character is reminiscent of Elon Musk: She swats away the comparison, in part because “I don’t find him desirable in any way or shape.”
The comeback of ‘90s fashion: “I celebrate the ’90s coming back. Except for those narrow sunglasses and the really thin eyebrows. I love vintage clothes from the decade. They fit me so well.”
She’s not a nepo baby: Her father did not find steady onscreen success until the ’80s. At times he couldn’t pay the mortgage without help, according to the 1999 memoir by Aniston’s mother. While discussing her good fortune, Aniston says, “Listen, I am so grateful. I came from nothing. We were broke. There’s no nepo baby here.”
On Matthew Perry’ 2023 death: “We did everything we could when we could… But it almost felt like we’d been mourning Matthew for a long time because his battle with that disease was a really hard one for him to fight. As hard as it was for all of us and for the fans, there’s a part of me that thinks this is better. I’m glad he’s out of that pain.”
There are lots of quotes from her celebrity friends, like Sandra Bullock and Jason Bateman, and she seems like she still has the same core group of besties which she had in the 1990s. I actually see her point about how she’s not really a nepo baby because her family was so broke. Yeah, her father was on a successful soap opera, but it’s not like she was booking jobs off of that. As for her retrospect about the Bermuda triangle era… “They think, You signed up for it, so you take it. But we really didn’t sign up for that.” I get that and it absolutely got crazy, and no, she didn’t sign up for that. But she did play some of those tabloid games. It was a long time ago and I get that she was taking it personally (as she says) and just trying to cope. But I remember!
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of VF.
