Can Mag, 22 May, 2006
By Fred Topel

Forget about the rumors of their real life romance for a second. Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn make a believable screen couple in The Break-Up, which is more than can be said for many movie costars in confirmed romantic relationships. Perhaps this was because Vaughn engages Aniston in script exercises before filming even began.

Vaughn and Aniston Break-Up

"When I say improvisation, that was more during the rehearsal time when we were trying to nail down just specifics for Brooke's kind of voice and stuff," Aniston said. "Working with Vince is just like working with a pro tennis player, if you're into tennis. He's such a professional, he's so good at his job, he's so funny and he's such a great actor, aside from being comedic. So for me, you get those moments pretty rarely. You get to have the kind of volleys as I like to say."

It also helped that Vaughn developed the script with Aniston in mind. "She was the only actor that I had in mind, because she's so good with comedy and she's also a very good actor and she also has a quality to her that just inherently she's very likeable," he said. "There's a warmth to Jennifer. These characters are both very flawed, so it's important to have that. And when we started the rehearsal process right away, I really was impressed with her acting, her timing, with all of that. Jennifer is really the heart of the movie, like Owen is the heart of the movie in Crashers. If she isn't as good of a straight man, as it would be, in this movie, and then also able to be comedic if it calls for it, but never lose that sense of being real and being a real person taking this journey, the whole movie would falter, so she was really instrumental. And yes, I did like her right off the back as a person as well. I think she's terrific."

Aniston agreed that the rapport was nearly instantaneous. "Yeah, you can kind of tell pretty quickly when you work with someone, 'Oh, this is going to be easy. Oh, this is going to be a tough one.' He asks questions. He listens, he's interested in other people. It's not just about him."

Since The Break-Up was written by men, they were the first to admit they needed her input on the feminine side of the story. "The one thing I've learned is, wherever you're from, wherever you're from, if it's a place in America or it's some place different, as much as things are different, they're really the same. And not just in relationships. People want to take care of their families. There's very much very universal truths about people from whatever background that they're from and the more different they seem, really the more close they are. So for me, I really wanted Gary to be kind of a tour guide, a blue collar guy, from that kind of background, and Brooke to be someone who was kind of open and interested in the art world, but not from a place of financial success, just because she sort of liked it, not like it was something that she didn't love but she was just doing to be successful."

Though she could not remember a specific addition she made, she did recall writers Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender soliciting her input. "That was sort of said, when I come into it we'll flesh out the female voice a little bit more. But in a way of like, 'We're dudes, you know. I don't know how the female side would respond.' And they were great about it and they made it so much fun truthfully, because it's universal, the relationship. Everybody can relate to these [characters]. It's fun, you kind of go back to all the relationships in your life and you sort of remember funny arguments or funny moments or things that you can apply to it. Like for Jeremy, the twelve lemons argument actually happened for him, as I'm sure it's happened for everybody. Those things are endless. It's an endless well."

The Break-Up opens to theatres on June 2nd.