Personal security, of course, can breed a sense of adventure. "There is absolutely something to feeling so full and safe in life," she says. "It's been an amazing decade of really looking inward and exploring all of the avenues that exist inside. Sometimes they're fabulous and sometimes they're dark and sometimes they're confusing, and who knows? I think if you get to a certain point, you're ready to tap into something emotionally and put it out there. And it is very vulnerable, and it's a little scary, but what's the point if you don't give yourself a little boo every once in a while?"
Daniel Barnz,
Cake's director, has said he wanted to work with Aniston "because we had to cast somebody who you can forgive immediately." After all, she could probably go punch someone in the face and people would just "get it." "Ah, there are some people I would punch," she says wryly. "I'd do that to a paparazzo probably."
However, Aniston is "a forgiving person," she says. "I absolutely am. I think it's extremely important to forgive. Otherwise it just builds up like toxic waste. There's nothing worse than holding a grudge. Listen, people can do unforgivable things, but you have to let it go and say, 'Look, we're all human beings. We make mistakes.' To hold any kind of resentment is like taking rat poison and waiting for the rat to die."
On Theroux: "He's one of the most humble, decent human beings. He's not an ***."
I'm having some Brie," Aniston says, jumping up and wrangling a dog off my lap. Talk turns to the movie business. Ask who her creative crush is and her answer is swift: "Justin Theroux. Not only is he a great actor but he's one of the best comedy writers out there.
And he directs and paints murals." She lets out a racy laugh. "And I just think it's so
attractive to be that good at so many things and to have no ego. He's one of the most humble, decent human beings. He's not an ***. He's not like some of our friends who are young and up-and-coming and they hit celebrity, and all of a sudden you're like, 'Oh! You're different. Now you don't say hi to people?' "
Aniston and Theroux originally met "when he was writing on
Tropic Thunder. We were just buddies, and then buddies through
Wanderlust [the 2012 comedy, in which they costarred]." Now, she continues, "it's almost impossible to get bored with one another. We've tried so hard! And even that's interesting because his eyes are so pretty, but we can entertain ourselves and talk about endless things, which is pretty great."
She also credits Theroux with grace in handling the attention that comes with dating the world's proprietary "Jen." "He's just been doing it so graciously and gracefully, and it's a strange ballpark to walk into. He's in his body, for sure. He's a pretty realized person." She flips back to his career. "But he's been doing this for 20 years."
Of the overwrought 40s, Aniston, 45, observes, "When am I supposed to freak out? When am I supposed to feel like, 'Oh, my knee! Oh, ouch!' I don't feel any of those things! I feel like our aging marker needs to be rejiggered. I heard Halle Berry refer to her pregnancy at 47 as a 'geriatric pregnancy,' which is ridiculous! It's insulting. Obviously, as women we've evolved." She laughs. "My eyesight is ****, though. I already was nearsighted, but now I can't see anything."
Apart from everything, with more clarity: "I've had more fun post-40 than I can remember," Aniston says. "From a work point of view, a physical point of view, a psychotherapeutic point of view." She credits her girlfriends, some of more than three decades, for whom she'd "go to the wall. I'm a pretty good judge of character, shall I say." Before Theroux, Aniston took a break from dating. "It really helped me get to a place where I was more comfortable with myself, truly ready for love and for a partner." She continues, "The past wasn't 'less than.' It was extremely important to my growth as a woman. But if you take the law of attraction, if you only love yourself 70 percent, that's what's going to come back to you. So you fill up that 30 percent, then all of a sudden there's this pure, good love standing right in front of you. Then you realize, 'Oh, this can be easy! It doesn't have to be so hard.' "
The rest of the year will see Aniston launch into promotion for
Horrible Bosses 2, out now, in which she reprises her role as a perverted dentist. "It's more hysterical than the first one, and probably a bit darker," she says.
Cake was a challenging, dark, deep role, and this was just full-on, like a big ice cream sundae."
Cake will be released before the end of the year, so there's a potential awards season to navigate too. "You know, people loved our little film," she says. "That was pretty humbling."
Aniston will, of course, dress for the occasion. Today she's sporting a pair of amethyst earrings: "These are Ted Muehling that my sweetheart got me." Theroux, he of the storied motorbike and leather, has great taste. "He can buy me jeans! I've never had a man be able to buy me jeans." Theroux's urbanity plus Aniston's sunniness equals "ebony and ivory, or tawny and ebony! That's another song altogether."
Finally, and most important, Jennifer Aniston's hair remains incredible. "It's a little darker than normal," she says, giving it a shake, "which I'm liking, actually." Both professionally and personally, going darker is Aniston's best look yet. "But you know," she adds with a smile, "it's just my hair."
This article originally appeared in the December 2014 issue of Harper's BAZAAR.
http://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/jennifer-aniston-1214
