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Jennifer Aniston is making waves in her role as Alex Levy on Apple TV's The Morning Show. Before that, she became a household name in her role as Rachel Green in the hit show Friends. Here's why Aniston said acting brings her "healing."
Jennifer Aniston | Amy Sussman/FilmMagic
Joining Apple TV's The Morning Show was a matter of being in the right place at the right time. Aniston told Marie Claire Australia the opportunity to be on The Morning Show came about during a Christmas party she hosted.
Initially, it came about because our producer Michael Ellenberg was at my Christmas party, and I was a huge fan of The Leftovers—which he also produced—so I said, 'You know, I'm not opposed to TV.' He said, 'Are you serious?' And I said, 'I am serious,' and it all sort of fell into place," Aniston told "Marie Claire."
Reese Witherspoon plays the role of news reporter Bradley Jackson on the Apple TV show. This is a reunion of sorts for Aniston and Witherspoon. They played sisters on Aniston's hit show Friends back in 2000.
Aniston told Marie Claire that filming The Morning Show was exhausting but she finds acting to be a great way to work through tough emotions. "There are times when you're just in a ball of tears afterwards," Aniston told the publication. "It's the first time I've really understood that acting is a healing craft, because when you go to tell the truth, you have to go to your own past pains; that's where you tap into the honesty of the emotion. Sometimes I leave a scene feeling like a manhole cover's been lifted off my back," Aniston said.
In a previous interview, the actress told writer Kimberly Cutter she sometimes struggles with issues from her childhood. After her mother's death, Aniston said she forgave her for past wrongs but still had to work through some pain from the past:
I was lucky that my mom and I came to a beautiful place of forgiveness with each other before she passed, but of course there's still pain there. We're always going to be a work in progress with all the triggers we have that stem from childhood input that they dump into our little brains. I'm still battling with things my father said when I was eight, nine years old.
Sometimes actors will find they share similarities between themselves and the characters they play. This is no different for Aniston. She told Marie Claire there are some similarities between her life and the life of her character on The Morning Show.
"I think the complexity of Alex Levy, being a public person living in a world where you are the provider of everyone's good news that day—you know, we all have a mother and father, and these people have lives and loves of their own that they have to put away when they show up every morning for America—that duality parallels the lives of actors in a way I could really relate to because of the familiarity of Friends," says Aniston.
