consisted of cardboard boxes and a makeshift scarf lampshade; when she would build her own closet, lay her own tiles, and have "painting parties" to entice friends to help cover her walls, in exchange for pizza and beer.
Anyone who knew Jen then knew that this girl was destined to do whatever she dreamt of. She exuded a quality that just made you want to be in her presence, and she was one of those rare creatures who, at 20 - and still at 41 - hadn't realised how alluring she is.
Jen and I have been neighbours, roommates, confidantes, collaborators and business partners. About seven years ago, we started Bloc Productions, which became Plan B Entertainment; now, we have a new company called Echo Films and a mandate to develop movies with strong female characters (strong male ones, too) in the hope of telling stories that take a few more risks than your average multiplex fare. Wish us luck because at this moment in Hollywood that's like saying you're going to use some handy-dandy magnet device to reverse the rotation of the planets - even if one of your magnets is a movie star like Jennifer Aniston.
Through the years, I've felt that while magazine profiles have captured aspects of who Jen is, they can't help but be what they are: a stranger's point of view. The essence of Jen is, as for any of us, found in the details embedded in the context of time, the details of what a person is like at their most relaxed, when there's no unfamiliar face in the room, when silence is completely comfortable. This is the Jen I've been lucky to know for two decades.
For this article, I flew with Jen to New York, where she was due to start filming The Bounty Hunter with co-star Gerard Butler. When we arrive at the Midtown hotel that Jen will call home, I head to her suite. A hotel attendant is wheeling in room service that Jen has ordered as an impromptu kick-off picnic for people she's close to on the film. Jen aims a sunny "hello" at the man in the black vest, addressing him by name. "Rocky" is shocked that this screen goddess remembers him, no less his name.
"I met you when I first came to this hotel to do Picture Perfect when I was 27," says Jen. Rocky turns a few shades of crimson as he tries to focus on the plates.
Once people have congregated in Jen's room, settling into a circle on the floor with plates on their knees, I announce my assignment. There is excitement at the idea that the world will get to see this Jen, the woman who shuttles between the sublime and the silly, as she's doing now, juggling conversations about a Hasidic healer, Marion Cotillard's performance in La Vie En Rose and a name we've just hit upon (The Crowded Plate) for the Mexican restaurant Jen has long dreamt of opening.
Jen begins a toast, thanking everyone for doing this movie. "I love you guys, and I appreciate you being here with me - and this is gonna be a fun one," she declares.
After dinner, she goes to the balcony to enjoy the nightly cigarette she allows herself while taking in the skyline of her favourite city - the one in which she grew up with her mother, actress Nancy Dow, and older half-brother, Johnny, until she moved to LA at the age of 20.
While she's staring at the cityscape, Jen shares some advice she received from her first drama teacher.
"I'll never forget my high-school acting teacher, Anthony Abeson, who said, "It starts with the shoes." When I think about a character, it starts with the shoes: what kind would she wear? How would she walk in them?
"If I'm going to put on a dress for a role - I don't care if it's the hardest dress to put on - I have to put on the shoes first. The physicality leads me to the character - like Justine in The Good Girl. She was so disconnected from how she looked, that's what led to the discomfort of who she was. My character in The Bounty Hunter is fun because the shit comes together easily for her. Nic is a quick study. She's the girl who gets the great push-up bra from Victoria's Secret, who reads an article about how to have the best orgasm - logs it."
Her favourite character so far?
"Jennifer in Marley & Me, because it spanned the life of a woman starting at 20-something, through marriage and into midlife.
"It covered the fun, excitement and disappointment - the "no-one told me how hard this was going to be" part - and then surviving that and being the better for it in this relationship with history to it. The theme of that movie - bellying up against a brick wall and not knowing how to move through it - is a universal dilemma. People who avoid the brick walls, all power to ya, but we all have to hit them sometimes to push through to the next level, to evolve."
Who is Kristin Hahn? Kristin is Jen's Production Partner. Jen and Kristin's Production Company - Echo Films made The Switch. Kristin was Jen's Bridemaid.
