The 2014 movie Jennifer Aniston made to prove a point: “Why can’t I be part of that?”
When it comes to sitcom royalty, few crowns are bigger or shinier than the one that sits atop the head of the woman behind Rachel Green, Jennifer Aniston.
The incredible staying power of Friends resulted in her, along with her fellow cast of loveable misfits, becoming household names in the 1990s, and Aniston still graces the screens of millions of homes. Besides her exploits in Central Perk, she has also appeared in the TV versions of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, South Park, and King of the Hill.
After Friends’ world-conquering success, Aniston transitioned seamlessly into the world of feature film. In 1999, she appeared in two bona fide cult classics: the live-action comedy Office Space and the heartbreaking animation The Iron Giant.
Several high-profile collaborations with Adam Sandler followed, as did box office smashes like Bruce Almighty and We’re the Millers. Considering her first starring role was the badly reviewed comedy-horror Leprechaun, she’s done alright for herself.
In 2014, Aniston took a big career risk with the Daniel Barnz-directed Cake, the story of which revolves around Aniston’s character, Claire, a woman who suffers from chronic pain. After a member of her support group takes her own life, Claire turns to drugs and also contemplates suicide, but things change when she meets Sam Worthington’s Roy, the widower of her dead friend.
Considering she’d made a name for herself through romantic comedies and sitcoms up to this point, Cake represented a massive leap in a different direction for Aniston. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times to promote the film, she explained why she felt the time was right to try something new.
“I was going through frustrations in my career,” she recalled, “I wanted to work with this director or that director, and it was like ‘Why can’t I be part of that?’ I had such amazing success in that one piece of our industry, but I wanted to stretch myself more. I was starting to fear maybe they’re right. Maybe I’m not right for any of these parts. But I can’t let other people’s opinions, or lack of being chosen for a role, make me doubt what I know I can do.”
Alas, in many ways, this gamble did not pay off, for Cake received mixed reviews from critics, who cited a lack of depth to the incredibly harrowing premise. At the box office, it was a failure too, bringing just under $3million on a budget of between $7m and $10m. Crucially, though, Aniston’s central performance went down a storm, and she was frequently singled out for praise among reviewers, even receiving a Golden Globe nomination for her efforts. She was also nominated for the ‘Razzie Redeemer’ awards at the Golden Raspberries, a real indicator of how times had changed.
Though not the first time she had stepped out of her comfort zone, Cake represented a significant moment in Aniston’s career. It might not have ended well from a financial perspective, but personally, it couldn’t have gone better.
