Entertainment Weekly, November 2005

Their Cheatin' Hearts
Q&A: "Derailed" stars Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen -- The stars of the sexy thriller open up about Hollywood, the pressures to open a film, and the paparazzi
By Dave Karger

Thank goodness Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen didn't become an item on the set of their new thriller, Derailed: Their names can't be combined into one convenient nickname à la "Bennifer," "Brangelina," or, come to think of it, the slides-off-the-tongue "Vaughniston." Face it: "Clive-iffer" just wouldn't work out. "Jive!" suggests Aniston as she and Owen (who's actually married with two kids - not that that's stopped other people) finish a joint interview the day before launching into their press junket for Derailed, out Nov. 11. For Owen, 41, the story of two married professionals who meet on a Chicago commuter train only to have their hotel-room tryst interrupted by a rapist - and that's all before a doozy of a plot twist that we won't spoil - is a return to the philandering ways that won him an Oscar nomination for Closer. His next projects, the Spike Lee drama Inside Man and the futuristic thriller The Children of Men, will continue his bleak trend. For Aniston, 36, it's her first film since her divorce from Brad Pitt and apparent hookup with Vince Vaughn and will be followed by her holiday romance Rumor Has It and next year's ensemble drama Friends With Money. We got "Jive" talkin' about Derailed's toughest-to-watch moments, their respective career paths, and why Aniston won't be saying squat about her love life anytime soon.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So, Jennifer, you basically read this script and said, "Hmmm, a lying, cheating hussy - perfect!"?
ANISTON: "That sounds like me!" It's typecasting. But reading it from beginning to end, there were no holes. I mean, you try to find a little hole somewhere, and...no idea! Not a clue.

EW: I have to say, I didn't see the big twist coming at all.
ANISTON: I watched the trailer with somebody and they immediately [guessed it]. From the trailer!

EW: You play such a dark character that it's the biggest departure for you that I can think of.
ANISTON: At first I was really nervous about it, thinking, I can't do this. I was starting to buy into my own sort of stereotype in a way.

EW: How did you get over that?
ANISTON: You just do. You just say, "Screw it, this is too much fun." And you have a relentless producer and agent who say, "You just have to."

EW: What was the atmosphere like on set when you were shooting that horrible robbery-and-rape sequence?
OWEN: It was a couple days.
ANISTON: I have to say, oddly enough, hard as it would seem, it was so choreographed and so technical that it wasn't as traumatic as one would have thought.

EW: Was there ever a point where you needed to take a break?
OWEN: Only because there was too much laughing!
ANISTON: We had such a good time. And I think we needed to, because of the nature of what we were doing.

EW: Clive, between Closer, Sin City, and now this, it's been a dark period for you. And yet you're a big fan of Adaptation. Would you be interested in doing a lighter film?
OWEN: Of course, it's just that I've never [been offered] a light, frothy film that I saw the point in doing. It's hard to write really good comedy. I read a lot of scripts that I just don't find very funny.

EW: Jennifer, since this is your first movie since the end of Friends, do you wish that Rumor Has It, the romantic comedy you shot before Derailed, were coming out before this darker film instead of in December?
ANISTON: I really don't care. I'm actually really happy with this coming out first. I prefer this right now.

EW: Are either of you interested in being considered people who can open a movie?
OWEN: You'd be a fool not to understand that there's a commerce side to the business, without question. But you have no control over that.
ANISTON: I know that it's a good thing to be able to open a movie. But it's a lot of pressure to put on yourself. There are a lot of movies that are unbelievable successes that I would be mortified to be a part of.

EW: Do you feel any added pressure knowing that this is the first movie that Harvey and Bob Weinstein are releasing under their new Weinstein Company?
ANISTON: I couldn't give a...we don't think about that kind of stuff. [To Owen] Is that bad? Should we be thinking about that?

EW: Jennifer, you've spoken pretty plainly about the challenges you've faced personally in the last year. When you're making a film about the complications of human relationships, do you find it useful to mine your own experiences?
ANISTON: You mean, like, dip into the well? Of course. Sometimes you have nothing to reference in your own life, but sometimes you do. And if I do, I do.

EW: How about for this movie?
ANISTON: [Long pause] Well...sure, a little bit, yeah.

EW: You're back in the public eye for the first time in a long time.
ANISTON: In this way, yeah. In a way that I'd like to be!

EW: What kind of preparation did that take?
ANISTON: I have to say, there was definitely a little bit of preparation, because I haven't been out there in so long. Not, like, meditation or anything, but just mentally gearing up.

EW: You're about to do dozens of five-minute TV interviews back-to-back. How do you steel yourself for all the personal questions that you're bound to get?
ANISTON: I just won't answer them. I just won't do it. I say, "Sorry. Learned my lesson. Next!"

EW: Does it depress you that because of all the tabloid magazines that are out there now, more people seem to know about The Break Up, the movie you just shot with Vince Vaughn, than this film?
ANISTON: Well, that's why we're here.
OWEN: I've been shocked by the use of video-camera footage on these crazy cable-TV shows. You got used to people taking pictures, and then suddenly there's, like, three guys standing with video cameras.
ANISTON: It's creepier. It's like, what's the supply and what's the demand? I think when it starts to become a danger to people just walking down the street or people in cars or children...unfortunately, something bad will have to happen.

EW: Do you think there's any way people will stop caring about your private business?
ANISTON: Stop giving it to them.

EW: I bet I'd get the rest of the year off if I got you to start jumping on this couch and shouting about your personal life.
ANISTON: [Smiling, silent]
OWEN: Why did you tell her? You were so close!