Jennifer Aniston can tick most boxes on her list. She has the fame she earned from the hugely successful Friends, and with that came the fortune. She's responsible for a million copycat hairstyles around the world and she's married to Brad Pitt.

Yet, despite the milestones, there is one thing that continued to elude her - a hit movie. She received terrific notices for the offbeat comedy The Good Girl in 2002 but it failed to do well at the box office. Then last year came Bruce Almighty, the tale of an unhappy man, played by Jim Carrey, to whom God grants his divine powers. It went through the roof. Jennifer plays Grace, the down to earth girlfriend of Jim's goofy Bruce. She brings to the movie a well measured seriousness while keeping the comic timing of Rachel - not an easy challenge. Despite her obvious talent, Jennifer gives all credit for the films success to Jim Carrey.

"I said, 'Okay, let's just watch the master at work.'" she says when told that Carrey praised her comic calm in the face of his incredible energy. "I think my stillness (Jim kindly said I was anchoring him) was just absolute fear! What am I doing? How am I going to match up to, and volley with, Jim Carrey? I am enamoured of him."

Jennifer reveals she learned about the art of slapstick from Jim the hard way. "He took physical comedy and brought it to a whole other level for me, " she says, "I had bruises and rug burns and did flips and was thrown across the rooms. You didn't know what to expect."

Despite Bruce Almighty's playful take on religion, the nature of the film outraged a few and was banned in some Muslim countries. Jennifer, 35, is aware of the sensitivity surrounding the issue. "I'm not religious, but I do consider myself a spiritual person. That's why I liked the idea of what this movie was and what it was saying." she says. "But it didn't get me thinking more than I've already thought in my life up until now."

Jennifer might have wondered if there was a God when she was struggling to make a living in the early days of her career. But even then the man upstairs couldn't have predicted that the ensemble comedy she auditioned for a decade ago would still be going strong today earning her $1million-plus per episode. But, as we know, all good things must come to an end, and the series of Friends starting it's run on E4 this month will be the last.

The thought of finally cutting work ties to her TV family - Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - puts Jennifer in a Rachel-like emotional tizzy.

"It's been a part of me for so long - almost 10 years - I can't imagine it." she says. "Someone was asking how I would like the show to end and I didn't even think about the question. I was just thinking 'Ohhh, the end!'"

That said, Jennifer is aware the series has reached it's natural conclusion. "It feels like it's played itself beautifully to the end and I think it's better to go out with people still loving us than sort of going, 'Oh they just stayed a little too long'."

It's likely the cast will remain friends, but it seems Jennifer and Courteney Cox Arquette have grown the closest over the years. The two often share evenings together with their husbands. "I organise the poker games," says Jennifer. "Karaoke is Courteney. She's the karaoke queen. I sit at the back and get harassed by Courteney. Brad gets up there. David Arquette is brilliant. Courteney gets up there and is a show unto herself."
Like Courteney, who it was revealed last October is pregnant, Jennifer has her own plans to start a family. She and Brad have been married for three-and-a-half years and she says the time is now right.

"I'd love to start a family," she says. "I've achieved all my dreams - made movies and had a hit TV show - but my biggest role in life will be as wife and mother to the children I have with my husband. I'm a nurturer, to a fault, " she adds. "I'm a worrier to a fault. And I'm patient... to a point."

Being in a hit TV show and married to one of the world's most lusted after men would require a certain level of patience and Jennifer credits Brad with really helping her navigate the ins and outs of being a celebrity.

"We've learned it together," she explains. "It's sort of trust in whatever the big picture is, and he'll remind me of that when there are certain things that I get worked up about. I will really get too worked up over it sometimes and want to be the one to change it - like that's going to happen! He'll be the one to balance me. it's a good balance."

Bob Strauss & Alan Silverman
Sky Magazine
January 27, 2004