***Special thanks to Kirstin for finding this article***

January 11, 2004
BY CINDY PEARLMAN
© The Chiago Sun Times. All Rights Reserved.

Rachel will soon rest in peace. Ross will join her. Chandler is history and Monica a mere memory.

So how are Jennifer Aniston and her pals handling the end of "Friends"?

"Will there be a postpartum period after we film the last episode?" says Aniston during a phone interview. "Will I need therapy?"

For the first time in a long time, Aniston is not kidding. As her hit NBC sitcom reaches its final taping in February and she focuses on a movie career, Hollywood's small-screen golden girl just wants to hide out under her pillow. "I'm going to take a long vacation after we wrap the final 'Friends,' " she insists. "I've actually needed that for a long time."

But first there are a few emotional issues to deal with before she packs her bikini for tropical locales. "Last night on the set of 'Friends,' we joked that we all might need to be sedated on the last night. In fact, it's hard just talking about it," says Aniston.

Even the mundane has meaning. "It's silly, but reading my lines as Rachel has deeper significance these days. That's something I've done forever and now I savor it," she says in a soft voice.

The upside is that Aniston is also trying to savor her new steps into the movie business. After critical acclaim for "The Good Girl" (2002), she was offered several choice scripts. The first she chose to do was a comedy with Ben Stiller called "Along Came Polly," which opens Friday. Stiller plays an uptight risk-management specialist who falls in love with a free spirit played by you know who.

Is Aniston that much of a free spirit? "To be honest, I'm pretty controlled," she says. "There are aspects of Polly that are pretty close to me when it comes to indecision. But I'm trying to think of the last time I said, 'What the hell' and did something crazy."

One of her favorite scenes was salsa dancing with Stiller. "It was five straight days where all we did was dance," she recalls, wincing. "My feet looked like raw meat. In fact, I don't know how dancers do it.

"Right after we shot the last of the dance scenes, I broke my toe," she adds. "So thank God we got all that dance stuff done." (For the record, Stiller was not to blame. "I stubbed it on an ottoman, which was ridiculous. Let's just say that ottoman is no longer there.")

Aniston also wants to prove herself again as a dramatic actress. "I'll take another stab at it," she says. "But mostly I like scripts that mix it up. Life can be funny and dramatic all in the same day. I don't actually feel there's a big difference between comedy and drama. You just step into the building and stuff goes out the door.

"Most of all, I just want to do work that comes from the heart."

Stiller says that Aniston shouldn't have a problem finding her way on film. "I don't want to say that there are only a few women who are good at comedy because it sounds so sexist, but Jennifer just has such inexplicable timing. It's in her bones. She knows when to say it and when not to say anything," he says. "She's very real because she listens, which is a real gift."

Aniston's methods are simple. "My acting teacher told me years ago that every character starts with the shoes. You put on pumps and you feel one way. You put on Keds and feel another way."

Aniston has listened to that little voice inside of herself and has tried to avoid all the Rachel roles handed her way. "I'm tired of the cliche romantic comedy formula, but if it's good writing and a story based in reality, I'll take a look.

"If it's too much of a gimmick then I'm out," she says. "For instance, I'll get a script about a guy who pretends something in order to get a girl. Ugh."

Aniston is the first to mention that early into "Friends" she signed on for a few dud movies. "Sometimes you think you're making a great choice and ..." Her voice trails off and she laughs before saying, "It's really not the greatest choice."

Of course, it wasn't easy juggling movies with the series. In a sad voice, Aniston says, "I guess in a few weeks I won't have that problem anymore." She sighs and adds, "We're all out of our bodies on the set. It's hard. It's 10 years of my life working with the most incredible people. It's weird that 'Friends' is ending. It doesn't seem like it needs to end, but it does."

The fallout is the international fame that is on her plate. "I can live with it," Aniston says. "I have moments where I go out and get mobbed, but I just have to be careful to avoid places where people are allowed to mob. I think it's so silly that we draw so much attention to one person just because they're on a TV show."

And being married to an even bigger star -- Brad Pitt -- certainly doesn't make it any easier.

Of their union, she says, "It's so nice to be married to someone you like a lot. Brad is a nice man. He's considerate and good to people. I'm just so impressed with him."

Was it love at first sight? "I knew," she says with a sigh. "Maybe I didn't know the first minute we met because we were both in relationships, but I knew. When we had our first date, I really knew."

She says they lead a very normal existence. "We're creatures of habit. We go out for Italian food or Mexican food. Taco Bell. In-N-Out Burger." As for working together, she says, "Someday, but it has to be a good project. We don't want to put a big bull's-eye on ourselves."

As for other big projects, she has always said they would think about parenthood when the series ended. "I wanted to finish one chapter before starting another," she says.

Right now, Aniston can't focus on those kinds of projects because she's too obsessed with her other baby.

In six months when "Friends" is all over, what will have been the highlight for her? "The whole darn thing," she says. "It was the greatest experience I ever had and I probably won't have an experience like that ever again."

She tells the story of Matthew Perry who ran into Mary Tyler Moore at a party recently.

"She said to him, 'Your show is coming to an end.' He said, 'How did you survive your show ending?' Mary said, 'I still haven't gotten over it.' "

"I just have to focus on my future," says Aniston, "which looks good."