Jennifer Aniston has every right to look pleased. After completing the tenth and final series of Friends (for which cast members received around $1m per episode, if rumours are to be believed), the 35-year-old actress has begun a cinematic career that has so far brought her commercial and critical success. After receiving rave reviews on the indie circuit for her performance in last year's The Good Girl, she went on to star alongside Jim Carrey in the smash hit Bruce Almighty.
Aniston now gets top billing alongside Ben Stiller in their new romantic comedy Along Came Polly. The film looks set to break $100m at the American Box Office, and on a whirlwind tour of Europe to promote it, she is clearly delighted at its success. Aniston plays the eponymous Polly, a travelling, salsa-loving waitress who snags the heart of Stiller's ultra-safe risk analyst.
The film sees both characters out on a number of dates that go hilariously wrong, notably for Stiller. Aniston claims that some of it is not so far from reality "The worst first date I went on was with a guy who took me to a massage parlour. I never saw him again after that."
It's clear that the actress is aware of how difficult it will be to lose the Rachel tag that has made her one of the world's most recognisable faces. "I know it's going to be hard for people to think of me as anything other than Rachel", she confesses. But while she is not going down the spin-off route like her co-star Matt LeBlanc, she doesn't rule out a complete return to the small screen. "If Matt asks me to go on the show, I'll be there, but I don't want a spin-off of my own." She tells how all of the cast felt sad when they filmed the final episodes. "I loved Friends so much and no other job will compare to it."
Despite being in one of the most high profile marriages on the planet, Aniston is remarkably down-to-earth. She admits that some of her early years as a struggling actress were spent waitressing. "I wasn't great but I loved it. I loved the people and the food, but I was a little klutzy and forgetful." Now that she no longer has to worry about money, it really seems that her movie career is the thing she is most focussed on. So what does Brad think of her big screen work? "He likes my movies, " she laughs. "His favourite is The Good Girl." But she scotches any talk of a collaboration with her husband. "I don't think that in the near future I'll be in something with Brad. It would probably cause too much trouble. But of course it's something we both want to do down the line."
