Elle 2001
What a difference a year makes. The excess of riches that ran rampant on the runways of New York and Europe just two seasons ago has been replaced by a refined elegance. Where logos and skins once reigned, tailoring and sculptural shapes now set the status symbol standard. Fur is still important, but it�s taken on a sophisticated air that complements the brocades and velvets designers have imbued with a Russian flair. Floorsweeping coats take cues from the military, and the most feminine of fabrics, silk satin, shimmers in eveningwear. Meanwhile, couture-quality details and craftsmanship are finding their way onto the season�s most memorable ready-to-wear. This month, ELLE pays tribute to seven who are in the vaguard of this movement.

In the film Rock Star, Jennifer Aniston plays a small-town girl who runs into the sordid underbelly of �80s-era heavy metal while trailing after her boyfriend (Mark Wahlberg), on his way up. Aniston acquits herself well, notes the film�s screenwriter, John Stockwell. But, he adds, the toughest task the production faced was showing Wahlberg �with his head just spinning over these Sunset Strip beauties� when in fact his supposedly plain-Jane girlfriend is�Jennifer Aniston.

Indeed, there�s something close to the state of the art in Aniston�s desirability quotient these days, an organic kind of attraction that no Hyatt House hussy is likely to put in the shade. Thus, after an aide has welcomed her visitor into the Hollywood Hills hideaway that she shares with husband Brad Pitt, a certain drama inhibits a room that�s awaiting her arrival. Soon the couple will move to a six-bedroom home on a nearby verdant canyonside, but they�ll keep this cosily high-tech retreat, rebuilt from a greenhouse according to Pitt�s instructions and spare, modernist sensibility. There are stacks of coffee-table books on subject ranging from the architect Schindler to Turkey from the Air, some stainless-steel car models in a Futurist vein, and a good selection of hippie-comfortable designer furniture. The house�s main room is flooded with light, with a headily open and accessible feel�a place where the late-night laughs almost still seem to be resonating.

Abruptly, Aniston skitters halfway into the room on orange platforms. The arms are deeply tanned and discreetly muscled, the torso as trim and famously shapely as expected beneath a blue camisole, the hips unparsimonious in jeans. The sculptured planes of the face (with a symmetrical scoop of chin that would please even a Futurist aesthetician) belong to the skinny edition of Jennifer, who once, legendarily, was thirty-plus pounds heavier. The corners of the mouth that turn up in unsardonic amusement are an instant reminder of her Friends character, Rachel Green. But where Rachel�s eyes are often clouded with a winning sort of confusion, Aniston�s are clear, quietly probing, and a remarkable blue that television and even film don�t quite do justice. It does say something about our national appetite for all things natural (she is the girl next door, albeit only in deep-REM dreams) that Jennifer Aniston is one of showbiz�s reigning objects of envy and attraction.

Aniston apologizes for having postponed the interview a day (occasioned by the sudden arrival of two scripts she had to read quickly). It�s a small enough courtesy but an unusually solicitous one, as was the call from her aide wondering if her interviewer had had lunch.

 

�Something about her seems like she�s just one of those people that Hollywood types fly over on their way to L.A.,� says Stockwell. �She�s not cynical, not jaded�the sort of girl that you can�t imagine what she does with the three-quarters of a million dollar she makes every week.�

The session begins with Aniston�s salad and her visitor�s sandwich quietly disappearing, as she explains how she and Pitt, who married on July 29 last year, have come to be nesting in this outpost that was formerly kept as a studio for her painting and sculpting, his architectural pursuits, and the odd musical jam with friends (Aniston�s most recent birthday present from Pitt was guitar lessons). �There was a flood�a pipe broke in my other house, and we were trying to live on this rough terrain�the floors are all ripped up. So we�ve primarily been living here for the past couple of months.�

She glances over her left shoulder, summoning up what�s beyond the front door�a quiet street of varied, unostentatious Hollywood homes defended by an iron fence that rises like a castle gate, as if it�s ready to munch on the cars that are buzzed through. But on the far side of the barricade, there are still vans of eager snoops. �I don�t know how you can avoid those rascally paparazzi finding out where you are�camping out and doing that sort of pathetic existence that they do to fill those trash magazines,� she says. �I. Unfortunately, get a little too riled up by it. You�re never going to win�so let it go and let it be.� She hasn�t quite convinced herself of that wisdom, however: �We are actors, but I don�t know where we signed up for �You can climb over our walls and take photographs of us.�� (Aniston sued one publication whose photographer did just that, snapping blurry shots of her sunbathing topless.)

�This is not an �If you ask for it, you get it� kind of thing.� She shrugs and turns noticeably more upbeat: �We actually just found a house, which I am really excited about; we�ve been looking for months, so it feels good to know that there will be a new place where we can downsize a bit.�

Aniston, who turned thirty-two in February, exudes a practicality that almost seems designed to shroud the fact that she and her husband are part of that odd modern category: the world�s Most Beautiful People. But the paparazzi can�t forget it, and even their fellow MBP-designate George Clooney, who co-produced Rock Star and hung with Brad on the set of Steven Soderbergh�s Ocean�s Eleven, can�t ignore it. �They�re really fun,� he notes in a bit of testimony that has echoed across every soundstage on which the pair has cuddled. �She�d come by the Ocean�s set, and you look over and go, �Well, there�s a homely couple.�� The congenial Clooney can even be drawn into speculating on what an Aniston/Pitt child would be like. When it�s suggested that such an offspring would emerge glowing, he says, �Exactly. Or just explode�too much for Earth.� (Aniston, who speaks of such matters below, can�t help but smile at the rash of rumours that she, like Friends� Rachel, is pregnant. �That�s what�s so funny,� she says. �We were like, �Well, jeez, we�ve got it written in here; it could come in nicely.� But, you know, we�ll see. All in good time.�)

If Clooney is happy to have Aniston on the planet, he�s gladder still that she agreed to shoot Rock Star during her latest hiatus from television. �Whenever you�re in trouble,� he says, �you throw it to Jennifer and she makes the lines sing. I would read things in the draft and go, �Wow, I don�t think that works.� And then I�d see Jennifer do it and say, �All right, I was wrong.��

In one scene in which Aniston�s character, Emily, finds herself trapped in a limo with the hard-living rock-star wives and girlfriends who travel in the wake of Wahlberg�s band, she�s offered a morning slug of vodka from the bottle. �Thanks,� she mutters in a nicely underplayed moment. �Already had breakfast.� In the film�s turning-point scene, she creates a riveting stillness in the midst of a noisy hotel hallway. Even as the rock �n� roll riffraff whirl around her loaded, unfaithful boyfriend, we see her slipping away from him, perhaps permanently, in a way so subtle he barely comprehends it. �It�s definitely Mark�s movie,� says director Stephen Herek, �but Jennifer really holds her own where she needs to be toe-to-toe with him.�

It�s a film in which Pitt contemplated playing the lead. The movie was still called Metal God when Pitt made the headbanger-research rounds with screenwriter Stockwell (himself an actor and, more recently, director of Crazybeautiful). Pitt reportedly was lukewarm on the studio�s first couple of director candidates, but Stockwell identified a more fundamental impediment to his taking the role, as one night on their way home from a Korn concert, Pitt made a tender 3.00 A.M. call to Aniston. �He wakes her up, but she�s not mad, and he�s just reporting in, not out of a sense of duty, but out of love,� Stockwell says.� He�s so in love with her, and I think he feels like he�s truly hit the mother lode. But part of the character�s journey is that at the beginning of the film he doesn�t realize how good he�s got it, or how amazing she is. In fact, I think Brad could never imagine cheating on Jennifer. I think he just felt like, there�s no way�once you got her, you�re not looking at anyone else.

�It is sweet,� Stockwell adds, a trifle abashed at the sheer Pollyanna marvels of such a couple (she promised at their wedding to always make his �favorite banana milkshake�). �I mean, it will give you diabetes.� Pitt blends loyalty with a daring level of indulgence toward his spouse, which becomes clear as she relates how disappointed she was when a Steven Tyler cameo in Rock Star fell through: �Some bands, like U2 and Aerosmith, just transcend, just keep it up and up. And Steven Tyler, I have to say�I don�t know how old that man is, but he�s phenomenal, that energy. He is the one person Brad said I can have if the opportunity presents itself. He said, �You can have that one.�� And in exchange? Who would Brad�s love freebie be? �He�s never said. It never comes up. Steven Tyler has just been our joke for a long time. I�m more verbal about it. I�m sure, than Brad is.�

Central to the handed-down tale of Aniston�s rise to prominence is the aforementioned thirty pounds she shed before getting her role on Friends. Though you could hardly have called her an ugly duckling or a failure; she was languishing in episodic television (with a credit for the film Leprechaun) before turning up as an increasingly big deal on the small screen�the head-snapping looker amid an attractive cast. (Part of the charm of her and Pitt�s celebrated union is that her husband arrived as a similar sort of icon of sensuality: the sixpacked, irresistibly grinning grifter gigolo of Thelma & Louise.)

Born in Sherman Oaks a few miles north of where she sits this day, Aniston is the daughter of an actor whose original Greek name was John Anastassakis�the hissable Victor of the soap Days of Our Lives. She got her early education at the Rudolf Steiner School (a freewheeling creativity lab where, for example, student took up any musical instrument that struck their fancy). John and her mother, Nancy, divorced when Aniston was nine�Nancy would later publicly detail how he ran off with his soap co-star�and Aniston saw little of her father until recent years. (He now lives not far away in Topanga Canyon.) Nancy raised her and her older half-brother, John (who eventually headed off to college); she and her daughter lived on Manhattan�s Upper West Side, where Aniston tested her zeal for acting in student productions at the Fiorella LaGuardia high School of Performing Arts. The Off-Broadway performances she did in New York and the scattered roles on a string of mostly unsuccessful television shows hardly forecast the day when she and her fellow Friends would be asking for NBC for $750,000 per episode each�and getting it. When the show was called Six of One, as it was being mounted in 1994, Aniston was asked to try out for the Monica role but ended up auditioning for Rachel, the girl of privilege who now serves up coffee and addled one-liners. The fame brought on by the series� success, if not sudden, was close to overwhelming.

With it came a sad betrayal. In 1996, her mother stumbled into babbling about Aniston on a tabloid talk show and then published a gossipy memoir titled From Mother and Daughter to Friends (in it, she recount her daughter�s phone call soon after the TV interview, �her voice distorted with rage� as she had said she�d never forgive her). Now when Aniston speaks about the complex feelings that have resulted in her mother still not meeting Pitt, it�s with a mixture of hesitancy and resolve: �It�s your family.� She says. �It�s the hardest thing�unfortunately it was dragged out into the public. I�m a firm believer in keeping your dirty laundry to yourself.� Distractedly and yet methodically, her face hardening with what looks to be remembered anger, Aniston lights the one Merit she�ll smoke in the course of our meeting and taps the ashes into what�s left of her salad. �We all have our own struggles. Some lives are easier than others. It continues to be hard, but time will heal it. I know I love my mother. I will always love my mother, and we all make choices�That was a choice that she made.

�It�s kind of ironic,� she adds of her less complicated feelings towards her father, who clearly has been forgiven for his long absences from her life: �My dad is just awesome, wonderful in every way. He�s a human being. We all make mistakes. As an adult it�s easier to see than than when you�re an angry teenager going, �Why did you�? Divorce, you know, is hard on any kid. So you kind of put everything out on the table, acknowledge it and be accountable, and move on.�

Moving on would seem to be a theme for the coming year, as Aniston and the Friends cadre will decide next spring, or sooner, whether to renew their rich deal or walk away to pursue their own shows and films. (�I couldn�t tell you who is the leader and who is the follower,� says Friends co-founder and executive producer Marta Kauffman of the sextet who never fail to hug each other before a taping. �because they go and they work things out, and then they say, �This is where we are.��)

Like pals Courtney Cox Arquette and Lisa Kudrow, Aniston has taken on films during the show�s production hiatus�with mixed results. She regretfully recalls jumping into Picture Perfect without a finished script because it was the best role that fit her schedule, but, as a lover of the offbeat indie films that have to make their own way, enjoyed the hard work of getting The Object of My Affection�s tangled romance on-screen in 112 minutes. �The three of us girls have lunch together every day,� says Kudrow. �That stuff comes up, and we�re each others� cheerleaders who are there to say, �We�ll, if it doesn�t feel right, don�t do it.�

Last march, Aniston, partly inspired by Kudrow�s effective turn in the challenging drama The Opposite of Sex, took on a role in The Good Girl, directed by Chuch & Buck�s Miguel Arteta and written by Mike White, who played the emotionally stalled Buck in that scalding but witty indie. As The Good Girl�s title character, Justine, Aniston is the frustrated labouring-class Texas housewife to John C. Reilly�s loser husband. �I went in saying, �I�m going to push you to try different colors,�� says Arteta. ��You are going to play this as a woman who is fed up with the world.� She looked me in the eye and said, �That�s music in my ears.�� Aniston cited to Arteta the example of Robert Redford�s tapping Mary Tyler Moore�s hidden gift for drama in Ordinary People: �She said, �I�ve been waiting for something like this.��

�I really wanted to do a good job,� says Aniston. �Because in the back of your head is the question �Will this be accepted? Will they buy this?� �There�s always that element with any of us on Friends who try movies�like, �Keep your day job!��and I understand that. It�s hard to have these people that you see every week all of a sudden go and do something else.

�But The Good Girl�s story was so human and painfully real; there�s that part of you that says the world can�t be all candy-coated.� Aniston�s struggle to balance the limitations of Friends with more highbrow projects has led her in recent months to question whether she still wants to be an actress. Perhaps because her life has grown more sedate and fulfilling, she�s become impatient with Rachel�s emotional chaos: �I say to the writers, �Come on, you guys, another young boyfriend where she doesn�t know what she�s doing?�� Still, she admits, �it could e a sad day when that drive (over the hill to the television studio) doesn�t happen anymore.�

With last season�s final episode, via a last second, fade-to-black reaction shot that made it clear Rachel was pregnant, Aniston stepped into a hailstorm of questions as to whether art was imitating her own life. She insists otherwise: �I�m not pregnant. You can get that out of the way.� Yet she isn�t shy about hinting that she�d happily follow Rachel�s lead. �You start to make choices. All of our friends have kids. Your priorities change, and it�s about your home and enjoying the passage of time. Going to New York or Europe for five months isn�t so appealing. And if it works out where we have kids, we�ll sort of switch off (in accepting roles), and the family will go wherever we need to go, which will be a nice luxury once Friends is done. But we haven�t crossed that bridge yet.�

As she sits amid the guitar cases and stacks of books, the unseen but palpable presence of her husband seems to waft in along with the warm Los Angeles breeze. The shag-carpeted bungalow feels like exactly the right setting for Aniston�s valedictory sentiment, with its echoes of Beatles lyrics and a gentler decade: �At the end of the day, when you go up to the big guy, he ain�t going to care if you were famous or how loaded you were or any of that. So it comes down to love�have you loved? Have you loved and received love?� Aniston�s Mona Lisa smile seems to momentarily undercut the absolute she�s just stated. But after another moment, she folds her hands, as if content to go with that conclusion. And why not?