Reel mistakes haunt Aniston (From The Northern Echo)

Reel mistakes haunt Aniston

12:19pm Thursday 2nd September 2010 in

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As yet another romcom seems to mirror Jennifer Aniston’s own plight, she sides with artificial insemination. Steve Pratt reports.

YOU’RE a famous 41-year-old actress with a much publicised romantic history including speculation about your desire to have a baby. So what do you do? You star in a film about a successful businesswoman of a similar age who wants a child, can’t find Mr Right and so decides to have one through artificial insemination.

There are bound to be questions about art imitating real life, especially if your name is Jennifer Aniston and thanks to a TV series called Friends you are one of the most famous people on the planet.

Not that she was worried about speculation that she’s considering emulating her character in the rom-com The Switch. ‘‘The media create stuff that’s not real, so if there’s a moment where they can match a tabloid headline of ‘pregnancy’ to me, then of course I don’t think that’s a moment anybody would miss,’’ she says.

So does she have a life plan like Kassie, the woman she plays in the movie.

‘‘Obviously not,’’ she says.

‘‘I’m just sticking to my plan, which is, wake up in the morning and be as happy as you can be... and live in gratitude.’’ She may not have a child but got to work with young actor Thomas Robinson, who plays her awkward, neurotic son Sebastian in the film. She describes him as ‘‘delightful’’, then confesses she worried about him working past his bedtime.

‘‘Thomas is just so little. I mean half the time I was just going ‘oh my God, shouldn’t you be in bed?!’ This business is just hard, the hours are long, he’s so young but you need a kid in a movie, so what are you gonna do?’’ Aniston is an executive producer on The Switch – the title comes from the fact that her best friend swaps his sperm for that of the donor she’s chosen – and clearly it’s a subject about which she feels passionate.

‘‘So many women are making this decision in life and taking this discussion out of the taboo category and making it into a celebration,”

she says. “So many of my own girlfriends have gone through it and I just think it’s great.’’ She’s adamant it shouldn’t be taboo for women to choose to become mothers on their own, as she believes you don’t need men to start a family.

‘‘There’s still a group of really ignorant people that say it’s because these women have failed at something.

They ‘failed’ at obtaining the ideal of the picture-perfect family. I just don’t think that’s fair.

‘‘Sometimes you’re ready and you’re just not going to wait ’til somebody comes along who you don’t really want to spend the rest of your life with, you know?’’ In her own personal life, Aniston has been constantly been at the centre of the rumour mill since ex-husband Brad Pitt fell for Angelina Jolie, during filming on Mr And Mrs Smith, while still married to Aniston.

But then her film choices have also caused people to find it difficult to separate real life from reel life. After the split with Pitt, her next big movie was The Break-Up, where she started dating costar Vince Vaughn – and then they broke up.

As well as acting, she’s branched out this year and just launched her own perfume at Harrods, simply called Jennifer Aniston. The posters advertising the scent show off her toned and slender figure on the beach.

Aniston insists the secret to her looks is an occasional indulgence. ‘‘You have to indulge, but that’s why you’ve got to do a run and balance it out. It’s all about the balance,’’ she says.

For all the romcoms she’s starred in, Aniston is a pragmatist at heart. She likes the love story in the film between best friends Kassie and Wally (played by Jason Bateman) because it’s true to real life.

‘‘I don’t think Kassie has a realistic idea of what that perfect person is,’’ she explains.

‘‘I think it’s why she decides ‘that perfect person isn’t going to come along so I’ll create the perfect child by getting the perfect donor’ – but she’s missing this wonderful person that’s right in front of her.

‘‘What is perfection anyway? You don’t know what shape or physical form love is going to come in.’’ ■ The Switch (12A) is now showing.