Jen Is Fine, She Just Wanted to Murder William H. Macy. She's Fine.
You might think that after suffering an Oscar snub, Jennifer Aniston would not be fine, but that would be very presumptuous of you, because as she states multiple times in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she's fine. She just wanted to murder William H. Macy one time, on the set of her non-Oscar nominated film Cake and she didn't, so it's fine.
THR reporter Stephen Galloway writes that "the words 'pain,' 'anger' and 'control'" came up again and again "throughout" his conversation with Jen, but that is not because Jen needs comforting, or for someone to give her permission to fail, because as she says herself, she has "really tried" to work on her anger, and it's going fine. Except for that one time she was filming a scene with William H. Macy for Cake, and this happened:
During another scene, when the man responsible for the car accident that has left her in so much pain (played by William H. Macy) arrives at her door, Aniston was overwhelmed. "Seeing the face of that man, I just wanted to beat the shit out of him," she says. "Thankfully, they gave me a stuntman to beat up, because I would have killed Bill. Really. This big guy said, 'You can punch me as hard as you possibly can.' And I remember seeing white and just beating him for take after take. And the next day, I woke up and couldn't move. My body seized [up]. I was like, 'What the f— did I do?' "
She would have killed William H. Macy. Really! She remembers seeing white, and just beating the stuntman for take after take, and the next day she woke up and couldn't move, and her body seized up, but she's fine.
During the interview, Jen also reveals many other things that she is fine with in her life. Here are some of them:
Jen is fine with: Death
Everyone dies, and you just move on. Jen's old boyfriend died. Her dog died and she got a tattoo of his name on the inside of her foot. You know what? That's O.K. Here are some other people in Jen's life who died, but it's fine.
Her grandmother:
"I was around 21 years old, and it was the first time I'd had a loss. It was really sad. But then, like anything, you have to move on."
Her therapist:
"But I learned so much in the four years I worked with her, that when she did pass away I remember thinking, 'Wow, everything that we talked about and discussed, it's allowed me to be really peaceful about it all.' I mean, there were human moments. But I was really shockingly OK."
The celebrated British actor Laurence Olivier:
"Honestly, I was obsessed [with him] when I was a kid. I just remember being so enamored of him. I remember thinking, 'Maybe someday, if I become an actress, I'll be able to work with him.' And I remember the day he died, crying my eyes out."
And all of her other heroes excluding the Dalai Lama:
She has few heroes she can cite, other than the Dalai Lama. "They're all dead now," she observes wistfully...
It's fine.
Jen is fine with: Her dyslexia
Did you know that Jen suffers from dyslexia, and that she wasn't diagnosed until she was in her 20s? She thought she wasn't smart but it turns out she just wasn't not dyslexic. After she found out she was dyslexic, everything was fine.
"I thought I wasn't smart. I just couldn't retain anything," she says. "Now I had this great discovery. I felt like all of my childhood trauma-dies, tragedies, dramas were explained."
Jen's dyslexia was caused by a condition we will call crazy eyes, that makes her eyes like jumping beans.
"My eyes would jump four words and go back two words, and I also had a little bit of a lazy eye, like a crossed eye, which they always have to correct in photos."
They always have to correct it in photos, but it's fine.
Jen is fine with: Her mother
Jen hasn't always had the easiest relationship with her mother, actress Nancy Dow. For example:
"...I was never taught that I could scream. One time, I raised my voice to my mother, and I screamed at her, and she looked at me and burst out laughing. She was laughing at me [for] screaming back. And it was like a punch in my stomach."
And also:
"She was critical. She was very critical of me. Because she was a model, she was gorgeous, stunning. I wasn't. I never was. I honestly still don't think of myself in that sort of light, which is fine."
Now Jen says of their relationship, "We're all fine."
Jen is fine with: Not doing that anymore
While filming Cake, Jen had to submerge herself in water. As she's said before, she has "a terror of water," and no one will believe her. Here's her description of filming the scene which involved water:
It took forever. I kept going in, and I'd have the weirdest Pavlovian thing, and I'd turn around and go right back up. I was starting to cry. I was really having a lot of anxiety. I'm like, "Don't cry! Don't cry! Don't cry!" And the underwater camera guy came over and said, "Don't do this. Don't do this anymore."
O.K., she won't do that anymore. She's fine.
Jen is fine with: Her fiancé
Jen has been engaged to actor Justin Theroux for over two years, and it's fine. "We don't have a [wedding] date," she says, totally fine with it. The important thing is that she feels comfortable around Justin:
He's the easiest guy to hang around. He was so completely in his skin. It was the first time I remember being so comfortable [with a romantic interest], like with all my gay friends.
You know, comfortable, like with all your gay friends.
So, will Jen and Justin have children together?
"Listen," she continues, "that's a topic that's so exhausted. I get nervous around that, just because it's very personal. Who knows if it's going to happen? It's been a want. We're doing our best."
She's doing her best she's doing her best she's doing her best and she's fine.
Jen is fine with: Control
[Jen] gets up and crosses the room to adjust an ottoman a notch. "Sorry, I had to move that," she says.
She's fine.
[Photo via Getty]