Jennifer Aniston went through a very difficult time after her tumultuous divorce from Brad Pitt. But fortunately this 2005 rom-com seemed to be exactly what she needed to heal.
Jennifer Aniston found doing ‘The Break-up’ very cathartic
Aniston didn’t miss the irony in being offered The Break-up after her very public divorce from ex-husband Pitt. The film saw Aniston starring alongside Wedding Crashers star Vince Vaughn as a couple forced to live together after separating. When she was first offered the picture, she couldn’t help laugh at it. But she quickly realized she was only able to do the movie because of her past relationship troubles.
“The irony of it? Well, yeah, it’s pretty ironic,” Aniston once said according to China Daily. “At the time, it was something I thought about it. When I first got the phone call that a movie called The Break-Up was coming, I kind of laughed and thought, ‘That’s funny.’ Sure enough, it was. I kind of found it something like a sign or something to do it. In a way, it’s a cathartic thing. I felt very lucky. If this had come to me at any other time, I don’t know if I could get it for myself on the level that I would have wanted to as an actor.”
In hindsight, she even felt destined to do the movie.
“This movie was fate,” Aniston told Elle in a 2005 interview. “To be able to walk through a movie called The Break-up, about a person going through a breakup, while I’m actually going through a breakup?! How did that happen?! It’s been cathartic. It’s turned something into a fantastic experience— Not that divorce is fantastic, but I’ve never had more fun in a creative process.”
Jennifer Aniston credited Vince Vaughn for bringing her back to life
The Break-Up might’ve been good therapy for Aniston in more ways than one. It not only provided her the emotional outlet she needed, but she started a very healthy bond with her co-star Vaughn.
“I call Vince my defibrillator,” she told Vogue in a 2008 interview. “He literally brought me back to life. My first gasp of air was a big laugh! It was great. I love him. He’s a bull in a china shop. He was lovely and fun and perfect for the time we had together. And I needed that. And it sort of ran its course.”
A common misconception, however, was that her divorce from Pitt was a lot harder on the actor than it actually was. In the same interview, Aniston remembered that her separation from Pitt wasn’t a fun time. But it wasn’t a tragedy she couldn’t bounce back from .
“Well, it never was that bad,” Aniston said. “I mean, look, it’s not like divorce is something that you go, ‘Oooh, I can’t wait to get divorced!’ It doesn’t feel like a tickle. But I’ve got to tell you, it’s so vague at this point, it’s so faraway in my mind, I can’t even remember the darkness. I mean, in the end, we really had an amicable split. It wasn’t mean and hateful and all of this stuff that they tried to create about Brad can’t talk to Jen and Jen can’t talk to Brad because this person won’t allow it. It just didn’t happen. The marriage didn’t work out.”
The two managed to stay in touch, and even collaborated on a table read for Fast Times at Ridgemont High not too long ago.
Vince Vaughn didn’t enjoy the attention he received when dating Jennifer Aniston
Neither Vaughn nor Aniston ever divulged what specifically led to their break-up. But in an interview with Playboy (via E- News), Vaughn gave some insight into what dating the Friends alum was like. What he might’ve underestimated was the amount of attention he’d have to deal with thanks to Aniston’s celebrity.
“You like someone and you’re spending time with them; that’s separate and that was all fine,” Vaughn said. “But I really spent most of that time finding ways not to be drawn into the attention. I think lying low and not talking about it put me in a good position later, because I just wasn’t part of anything.”
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