Jennifer Aniston has said she is a “late bloomer”, and feels she is “just getting started”.
The actress, who shot to fame as Rachel Green in Friends and who turned 50 earlier this year, will next be seen playing the anchor of a breakfast TV show struck by scandal in the Apple TV+ series The Morning Show, on which she also serves as executive producer.
She stars opposite Reese Witherspoon, who is also an executive producer, and who said she makes it a priority to use her position of influence to advocate for gender parity in the projects she works on.
She told the PA news agency: “I think when you get to the place where I’m at it’s important that we advocate for others because it doesn’t work if it’s just for us, it’s about opening the door for other people so I’m enormously proud to be in this position, I take it very seriously.
Aniston added: “We have so much more to do. 20 years ago, 30 years ago, that is when they were sending women out to pasture, we are just getting started.”
Asked what has changed as she got older, she replied: “Just experience, I’m a late bloomer I guess and in terms of feeling excited about what my potential is. I know that sounds like something I should have figured out a while ago, but I think (it’s) because opportunities are more.
“We have more opportunities and I’ve been very, very blessed and fortunate to still be here doing what I really love to do.”
The show marks Aniston’s return to television after 15 years away, but she said: “In terms of the workload, it didn’t feel like going back to television so much.
“Let me tell you something, this is not what it used to be, it was a lot easier than this, or maybe we are just a little older.”
She added she is still unclear on what made the show Friends such a phenomenon, saying: “We are still trying to figure out what it was about it that had such an impact, but I think it was about the support of friendship and how important that was.
“And we didn’t have cellphones.”
Witherspoon continued: “And it’s so beloved, it’s like people love you in such a way that is so deep and personal to them.
“I love it, whenever it’s on I stop and stare at it, it makes me feel good.”
The Morning Show is out now on Apple TV+.