REESE WITHERSPOON Friends ON BEING REUNITED STAR JENNIFER ANISTON
ACTRESS REESE WITHERSPOON TALKS OPENLY ABOUT HER EXPERIENCES IN THE INDUSTRY AND BEING REUNITED WITH JENNIFER ANISTON
Nearly two decades after Reese Witherspoon last worked with Jennifer Aniston – when she played Rachel Green’s younger sister Jill on Friends – the women have reunited. The actresses star in Apple TV+ comedy-drama series The Morning Show alongside Steve Carell.
The Morning Show – which was also produced by Reese – was commissioned before the #Metoo campaign, but its story of a TV executive being fired over a sexual misconduct charge couldn’t be more relevant. The show has received a two-season order from Apple, with the first season premiering this week.
Revealing how Jennifer, 50, and herself manage to stay looking so fantastic considering the long days on set, Reese, 43, has revealed both actresses stick to a regime of 16-hour fasts, daily green juices and exercising most days. ‘I just have a green juice and a coffee in the morning,’ says a svelte Reese, adding: ‘Jen knows so much about health and fitness that I always defer to her. She’s great at wellbeing advice.’
Here Reese, who is mother to Ava, 20, and Deacon, 16, from her marriage to Ryan Phillippe, and shares son Tennessee, seven, with husband Jim Toth, talks about working with Jen again, motherhood and sexism in Hollywood...
I am much more of a morning person than Jen [Aniston]. In that sense, we really complement each other on The Morning Show. I love waking up early, so I’ll come in to shoot in the morning. I’ll do the morning shift and then Jen comes in and she can stay up all night. At that point, I’m like: ‘Oh my God… I’m so tired.’
I wake up really early, at around 6am. I read a lot of newspapers and a couple of official newsletters. I exercise and then I go to work. I also make sure the kids go to school and they are all fed. That’s a given.
It’s been fantastic, but we worked together before. We first worked together about 20 years ago – the one time I was on Friends. I love the fact that I got to revisit this friendship and sisterhood so many years later. It’s a dream come true.
What was it like on set with Jennifer back then?
I was scared out of my mind on Friends because I was watching all of them perform at such a high level. I quickly realised that I didn’t have the skill set to be in front of a live audience every single week, where they were doing the transitions and changes that were coming
through so quickly. I was really nervous, but Jen was very sweet to me. She was like: ‘Don’t worry if you mess up. They think it’s funny.’ She kept telling me not to worry because she could tell how nervous I was. I was really scared.
What did you bond over when you first met?
I had a little baby back then; little Ava. That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to do Friends. I was a new mum and all I did was watch the show all day. A lot of new mums say they watch Friends because it’s so comforting. I cried when they called me and said: ‘Would you like to play Rachel’s sister in the show?’ I remember saying: ‘Are you kidding me? This is the greatest day in my life!’
How young was Ava at that point? She was very young. In fact, I was still nursing [breastfeeding]. I would do scenes and then I’d run and pump – and then I’d rush back to set. It was so much fun on that set and it was such great writing. I still remember one of my lines to this day. It’s one of my favourite jokes. Jen says to me: ‘You can’t have Ross.’ Then I say: ‘Can’t have? Can’t have? The only thing I can’t have is dairy!’
The Morning Show tackles the issue of feminism and equality. What can you tell us about that?
What I think is interesting about our characters, is Alex has existed in a system that barely made space for her and she felt lucky to be the only woman in that space. My character comes in and says: ‘Hold on! Just one woman isn’t enough. There needs to be more. There needs to be all.’ To me, that is like second and fourth generation feminism. It’s a little bit of a different ideology, just in the idea that women that grew up at different times. My daughter has a different idea of what feminism is than what I grew up with.
There’s a line in the show that says Alex is past her sell by date... Listen, you just don’t get to write women off. You just don’t get to write people of colour off. You just don’t get to write people off.
The show was rewritten after the #Metoo movement. In what way is it different?
I think it’s really important that we had men like Mark Duplass, Billy Crudup and Steve Carell involved. They are men who are willing to be part of this conversation because it is a very gender-balanced conversation in this show. It’s not from any one person’s point of view. I think the show displays the humanity of all sides of it. For that reason, we needed really thoughtful, smart men to have these conversations with really smart, thoughtful women in order to come to some sort of truth. I think that’s a really
important part of our show.
What about in your own experience?
Well, I’ve had so many incidents that I don’t know where to start. Of course, things like this happened to me over and over and over again. There was the inference that we were powerful or that we were in control of our own destiny or our careers. It wasn’t until a few years ago when I decided to self-fund a production company because I was so tired of being told they can only make one movie for women at a time at the studio. They literally say things like that to your face and that’s just not good enough. It’s not good enough!
What’s the best advice anyone gave you?
Jen gives me really good advice. She gives me a lot of health and wellness advice that I always follow. Another piece of advice someone said to me the other day is very true. They said: ‘I like to work with people who are easy to work with and happy to be there.’ It’s a theme throughout my life. When I meet people like that, those are the people I stay with – and those are the people that have longer careers. You see they’re grateful and enjoying themselves.
The series is set in the intense world of morning television in The Morning
Show. What do you do to de-stress?
I nap every day. I don’t take lunch. I eat lunch before lunch and then I take a nap during lunch. And I listen to this really interesting high-frequency music that makes me feel relaxed. It’s on Spotify – I love it.
‘jen gives really good advice’