Determination, courage.....the awesome Jennifer Aniston
It’s not surprising Jen felt so comfortable playing Rachel in the hit comedy ‘ Friends’. Playing Monkey in the middle came easy and natural. The parallels between Jen and Rach were cleverly and subtley exposed by Friends’ script writers.
As a 5th grader, Jennifer Joanna Anastasakis was given “The talk” by her mother Nancy. The conversation may have explained that her father, the one she’d doted on for all of her precious 11 years was in love with a woman he met on a studio lot set. Jen, known as a liberal, fair and non-judgmental person, would eventually understand her dad fell in love with his co-star from “Love of Life”, as a side note, he would go on to marry Sherry Rooney. Jen would also understand that, as an actor, spending time with any co star can lead to a relationship. A realization that would hit even harder in later life with her own husband. No one ever doubted how much her father, the legendary John Anastasakis loved his precious daughter, Jennifer. What about her mother? I t would be unfair to say that Jen’s mother, Nancy Dow hadn’t always loved her daughter. Families always go through good and bad times. Relationships between family members can be strained especially in testing times. Divorce is never easy. Jen obviously took it bad and felt a certain amount of responsibility which is sad considering how young she was. More should have been done to protect her. I’m sure both parents have taken responsibility for dropping the ball.
Speaking of dropping the ball…It just so happens that when Nancy drops the ball, she REALLY DROPS THE BALL. First of all, there was Nancy’s book about her famous daughter, then came what she said about Jen and Brad Pitt on a T.V show. Jen, always the bigger person didn’t get into it, although privately, she was understandably hurt and felt betrayed. The pain she felt was bad enough, like the scar kept getting ripped open and raw. No, you could blame Jen for being pissed, who wouldn’t be? Jen as ever gotten on with her life, using her acting and yoga as a positive release from the crap. Jen forgave her mother, even recently paying all of her medical expenses after Nancy took a fall.
Perhaps Nancy felt she was entitled given that she was a single parent and raising Jen through Middle and High School. It was Nancy that supported Jen’s decision to attend New York’s Performing Art School, granted, it was Jen who totally blew the audition panel away to get accepted at PA, and it WAS Jen who worked her butt off and supported herself while moonlighting as a waitress and auditioning, acting of course being Jen’s first love. . It’s all too easy to forget that before she landed Friends, Jen went through the whole process of learning her chops, this included Rudolph Steiner elementary school which encouraged her creativity and then later on performing Dancing on Checkers Grave and For Dear Life for Musical Works Theater company in New York City. Like all actors, Jen went through the process of being rejected before landing Camp Cucamonga and then television with the hit comedy show, Malloy. The rest is, as they say, history.
Jen has come a long way. Sure her dad is a famous actor who once took her and Nancy to live in Greece (Jen was in Elementary school), as work for him here in the US was slim pickings. John never encouraged Jen to pursue acting. What else could she do? Acting was in her blood and not just because of her parents (Nancy was also an actor/model). Even her godfather was the late great Telly Savalas.
What do we learn from Jennifer Aniston? Jen showed awesome character to come out stronger and wiser from those precious young years. She showed confidence and determination to become a free thinking and independent person. Jen learned early on not to be dependent on a man for anything, especially financially. Kudos to you Ms. Aniston.
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