Jennifer Aniston & Owen Wilson Interview

Buzzine sits down with stars Jennifer Aniston, Owen Wilson and director David Frankel to get the inside story about Marley & Me, their new film based on the mega-selling novel.

Emmanuel Itier: When reading the script or getting into character, which of the universal themes touched you most?

David Frankel: The theme that drew me to the movie was the sense of yearning, a sense of that John and Jenny both wanted something more from life than they got, and that sense — that sort of universal sense, I thought, was a very universal theme. It said the idea that you get 15 years into a marriage and you realize where your life is, and it’s a crazy dog and screaming kids, and you’re working in a job you don’t like or you’re not even working at all, and you wonder how you got there and you think you’re unhappy, and really you’re not. You’re living your dream. And so that idea, that yearning, is what I found so beautiful.

Jennifer Aniston: “This is not my beautiful house. This is not my beautiful wife…”

Owen Wilson: For me, it was the sense of family. I always have a hard time describing what this movie is about in a couple of sentences. I asked Alan Arkin, “How would you describe this movie?” And he goes, “It’s easy. It’s about a newspaper editor whose job in jeopardy [laughs], because one of his reporters spends too much time with his dog.” [Laughs] From my character’s point of view, it is sort of about that. Maybe it is sort of represented by Sebastian, like “that looks sometimes more exciting than the life that I’m having.” But I think there’s a trade-off that you make — and an acceptance and an appreciation of what you have, being in the moment.

JA: I’m kind of going to repeat what they said…

EI: Well, what really touched you most about this part when you read the script? What moved you?

JA: Well, honestly, it is the expectations that you have when you’re young, and you have the world in front of you, and you have your dream and your plan — your master plan — and then one day, you wake up and the plan has suddenly changed. And all of a sudden, you are in this situation. I don’t think we have any idea what our future holds for us, and I think we have expectations and we have pictures in our minds, and I think we set ourselves up to, unfortunately, think about the future. I mean, my character definitely makes plans — a very A-type personality — and I think she gets to a point where she kind of learns to throw that away because that’s not the road that she’s going to go down. And then I think, as a result, she helps him have that realization and coming to peace with: this is my life, and this is a beautiful life. Not maybe what I thought it was going to look like, but it’s a beautiful life.

EI: I just wanted to know if your dreams and expectations were different from what you turned out to be? When you grew up, what you thought of doing?

JA: Honestly, I’m not a planner. I’ve never been somebody who was like, “I’m going to grow up and I’m going to be married, and I’m going to have kids…” I just was always like, “Just get me out of the house. [Laughs] Just let me survive and get my own apartment.” So I’ve always been an in-the-moment kind of person, obviously.

EI: What about you, Owen?

OW: Well I didn’t grow up wanting to be an actor or work in movies. I think if I had thought that was really a possibility, I would have. I mean, my brothers and I saw every movie that came out and always loved going to see movies, but it just didn’t really seem possible, I think, to have said something like that. People would have thought you were putting on airs to say “I’m going out to Hollywood and…”

JA: “…I’m going to make it…”

OW: Yeah, so I think I’ve always been a little bit almost superstitious — maybe even not having plans — just letting things unfold, because that just seems to be the way that it happened for me and my life. And yeah, I think there is something to be said for planning sometimes.

JA: I just have the thought of if you keep your eye on an end-point and you’re not just enjoying the journey, and you’re so focused on the ambition of what it will look like, I think you miss out on things. It’s like that cliché John Lennon quote…

OW: “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans…”

JA: Exactly. And I think you actually gain more opportunities when you’re able to look at everything. Sometimes you just pass right by things, focusing too much on a result.

EI: Do you think a good way of celebrating 40 is to be naked in a pool?

OW: The perfect way.

JA: I can’t imagine anything better! [Laughs]

OW: Life imitating art. [Laughs] I just had my birthday. [Laughs]

EI: Do you think family life is overrated at all?

OW: Who’s going to say yes to that? Yes. [Laughs] Overrated. Who wants to be surrounded by a loving family? [Laughs]

JA: Yeah, that’s bullshit!

OW: I have a pretty close family and yeah, I don’t see how that could not be a benefit.

EI: Didn’t this movie stop your biological clock a little bit?

OW: Did the movie stop my biological clock?

JA: Do you have one? [To Owen] [Laughs]

OW: Maybe. Well yeah, in having those children around, our children [laughs] — it’s Patrick, Connor, and Lucy?

JA: That’s correct.

DF: Colleen [Laughs]

JA: Colleen. Oh, Lucy [Merriam] was the actress’s name.

OW: Oh, I was so proud of myself that I remembered that, ’cause earlier we hadn’t been able to. We forgot the names of our own children…although my mother sometimes calls me Andrew or Luke, but that’s just because we sound alike. Where was I going with this? [Laughs]

EI: The biological clock.

OW: Well, it was fun seeing David with both of his kids, and then I’d see him doing stuff with Jake, his son, and I was like, yeah, I could have fun doing stuff like that.

EI: This question is for Jen: In your opinion, who’s more faithful, men or dogs? [Laughs]

JA: What? I don’t know! [Laughs]

OW: Depends if the dog’s fixed. [Laughs]

JA: Right. [Laughs] It depends on how you define “faithful.” Do I really have to answer that?

EI: If you had to choose between job and family, what would you choose in the future?

JA: I think I’m fortunate enough to choose not to have to make that choice. I don’t think that’s a question you can guess at. I think you have to be standing in that position to have an authentic answer to that.

OW: Yeah, I can’t imagine you being super attracted to a guy who said, “You’re going to quit your job, you’re going to be in the kitchen, that’s the end of the story.” [Laughs]

JA: Or, as actors, we have the luxury of being able to say, “You know what? I’m going to take a couple of years off and do this.” And that’s the luxury of our careers. And we also have the luxury to ask for help if we need that. So I don’t think I might find myself in that position, but who knows?

EI: But wouldn’t you say — David, for instance — the whole film, in a way, is about life being a balancing act?

DF: Yeah, part of the film is about the choices that you make and the obligations that you take on and living with those choices. Jen had the beautiful speech about having made a choice and having to live with the repercussions of that.

JA: …The guilt that you resent it sometimes.

DF: Yeah, and I think obviously resentment creeps into all our lives, and I think the movie just reminds you that you’ve got to get past that. You’ve got to remember that what’s important is that you’re together and that you’re surrounded by people you love. That’s why the dog, I think, is such a beautiful, wonderful prism to see the movie in, because dogs give unconditional love in the moment at all times.

JA: They’re never thinking, “The next door neighbors — that meal those dogs get every night is much better than this meal…” You know, they’re just there. They don’t care if you’re living in the depth of depression or in the lap of luxury.

EI: Speaking of dogs, I know that you are a dog owner. I think every day people walk up to me — do they have no shame walking up to you and going crazy over your dog? When you’re as famous as you are, do people still go for your dog?

JA: Oh yeah. [Laughs]

EI: Does it annoy you?

JA: Oh yeah, absolutely. What’s weird is that he’s recognized! [Laughs] That’s the weird part.

OW: Really? He’s got a little fame?

JA: Well, he does. But I’m cutting him off. No more Oprah. [Laughs] And no more Vogues.

EI: You play a journalist in this movie. What would you do if you could be editor, just for one day, for a big newspaper or a big magazine?

JA: [Laughs] I don’t know where to begin.

EI: If you were the topic in that magazine…

JA: Yeah, I’m not going there.

OW: There some editors that were hanging around that we could talk to. It seemed like that those guys all seemed to think that the journalist [position] was more fun to be doing — to be out doing the stories — than it is to be managing reporters. [Laughs]

EI: This was semi-biographical for David because your dad was also a columnist?

DF: Yeah, that’s where I started. I grew up in a family of journalists. My dad was the editor of The New York Times, and so, I can never live up to… Fortunately, I have enormous freedom. I don’t ever have to live up to my dad’s reputation too high.

EI: Well, you already have a great reputation as a film director.

OW: [To David] I remember one script note was that I wouldn’t say “Mister…”

DF: Oh yeah. My stepmother was a columnist in The New York Times. She gave a note on the script. She loved the script, and she said, “But Owen’s character would never call an editor ‘Sir.’” It’s just not the terminology that would be used. A journalist would never call an editor “Sir.” [Laughs]

EI: What would you do yourself, in real life, with such a dog like Marley? Would you give him to someone else? Hire a dog trainer to teach good manners? [Laughs]

OW: I have an Australian Cattle Dog, and in the first couple of years, the dog was super high energy and rambunctious, and it’s a little bit like work, getting through that. But yeah, it’s those like trying times that then end, and you appreciate more when they finally settle down. But sometimes you could have a dog that’s so crazy, you just have to maybe…

JA: I did.

OW: You did? You gave him to a farm?

JA: I gave him back. I sent him to a farm. [Laughs] He was dangerous. He was biting children, and it was a Chow. Scary breed.

DF: I have a Chow.

JA: You don’t have a Chow. You say you have these dogs that sleep on the end of your bed.

DF: I had him fixed a year ago.

JA: Oh, that was that dog. I do remember that.

EI: Are there any goals in your mind that you haven’t achieved yet?

JA: Sure, there are a lot of things I want to do.

EI: Anything specific?

JA: Oh, nothing that you…

DF: You want to direct. [Laughs]

JA: That’s a good one…and produce. We’re in the middle of doing that as well.

EI: Do you want to direct?

JA: I did…once, and I want to do it again, full-length.

EI: How is your patience level with kids and dogs, and did you see yourself in your character’s position with both of those things any time soon?

JA: Sure.

OW: I found that the patience level I had was greater for the dog [laughs], but the kids sometimes would drive you crazy, like the screaming, the crying…well, that was the way it was supposed to be in one of those scenes, but…

JA: They had to keep them tired so they would…that was hard. It broke your heart.

DF: Jen is the baby whisperer and Owen is the opposite. [Laughs]

OW: Well, I guess something kicks in when it’s your own child…

JA: The baby would come into my arms, it would stop crying.

OW: But that’s not…it wasn’t every… [Laughs]

EI: So the babies would cry with Owen and not with Jennifer?

OW: No that’s true. They would always cry with me, and you [to Jennifer] had a better thing going.

JA: But it was when you found a quiet baby that was actually [laughs] frustrating, because we wanted to get the scene. We’d want to, and then you’d have to find the prop guy to scare the baby, so [laughs] you found out what worked. It was like everytime he comes around, the baby starts crying. So he would do a weird face and start taking toys away, and he’d just look at him and, like, burst. Such a strange thing.

OW: You know, we weren’t able to do that with the dogs — the Humane Society and all…

JA: It sucks there isn’t a “Human Society” for that.

EI: Jen, can you also answer about the biological clock? Perhaps you have something to say?

JA: Oh, why? I have nothing to say. [Laughs]

EI: In the movie, although your partner is a friend and a support system, you don’t have a female friend that supports you in the movie. How important is friendship in your life? And how and where do you find the strength to go through the most difficult times in your life?

JA: Well, I personally can’t live without friendship. I don’t understand how people isolate and don’t commune with friends, but I personally depend on them and vice versa. I think it’s a part of what takes you through life during hard times. Friends, family, yourself, more importantly…

EI: Regarding your relationships Owen, what would be the ideal partner, if there was such a thing as an ideal partner?

OW: It felt pretty realistic, the way this relationship played. The fights and stuff have a ring of truth to them. I think the ideal relationship is one of the things the movie is exploring — that there isn’t necessarily an ideal. The reality is there are ups and downs, and getting through was like the stuff that gets you through everything: a sense of humor and communicating, and maybe seeing things the same way, having a similar take on stuff…

JA: Like the ability to compromise and selflessness.

EI: The chemistry between you two was very believable. David, did you know instinctively these two would work on screen?

DF: Yeah. [Laughs]

EI: Elaborate!

DF: I think, without even meeting them, I had a sense that they would be brilliant together, but certainly the first time they met and just seeing them together, it was as if they had been married for ten years. They just seemed instantly comfortable with each other and they speak the same language. I think they’re both brilliant and funny, but they’re also very warm and have this incredible sweetness, and I think they sense that. It’s like two people suddenly discover that they do share the language, and it was exciting to them. And they created great sparks.

EI: The minute you two met, did you immediately realize there was going to be on-screen chemistry between the two of you?

JA: Yeah. With David, you’re just disarmed. You just completely feel comfortable. My first meeting with David, which was actually without Owen, I could have sat there for hours. It was just one of the most comfortable…and I think it’s because you don’t live in Los Angeles, I really do. You’re not surrounded by this world, and I think the same with Owen. He’s just so down-to-earth and sweet and kind, and there’s an ease, there’s no pretension, there’s nothing to have to cut through, there’s just sort of…what you see is what you get…and then some.

OW: Yeah, and I always think it’s important to know early on if you’re going to have to tip-toe around the person with ideas or if you can like throw stuff out, and if people are excited to talk about stuff and get different takes on things, and so it just seemed right from the beginning.

DF: And that was the first thing that you guys started doing, was riffing on the script. And it was getting better, just as we sat there…

OW: And it’s nice when somebody riffs good ideas.

DF: That continued all the way through.

EI: And you’re a writer (Owen) as well, so…

JA: It helped.

EI: Did you actually help with the writing?

OW: No, they really had done a great job with the script, and there was always stuff that we would be figuring out how you were going to shoot it and block it and everything, then maybe some stuff would make better sense being done a different way, but everything was pretty much there.

EI: Do you think it’s a family movie? The trailer doesn’t necessarily represent that.

OW: Well, it’s about a family and a relationship and dealing with these real issues that maybe it’s not like a… I think the dog helps give people a connection and an in, but…David, maybe you have…

DF: Well, I think it’s a family movie, and I think that the trailer represents a big chunk of the movie.

OW: We were saying that Marley kind of makes it an action movie. [Laughs] We get the chase scenes and that stuff…

EI: Could you talk specifically about the most exciting moments making the film — some of those hilarious moments with the dog and how crazy it got? Was it as chaotic as it looked with the family and the dog?

JA: Chaos.

EI: Owen, was it a very different challenge for you, doing that kind of emotional part in the film?

OW: Yeah. I remember working on another movie where I was supposed to feel some emotion, and it was like one of the other characters was supposed to have just exploded, and [laughs] now you’re supposed to feel something, and they had to get those glycerine things to blow in your eyes and kind of make you kind of tear up ’cause it felt so unreal. It was difficult. And then this movie, I was a little nervous because there were going to be some emotional parts to it, but it wasn’t hard. I mean, it was hard maybe not being emotional in between the takes, just because the situation felt very relatable and very real. 

DF: He’s very modest. He was great at it and I told him after the first take, and the cameraman couldn’t keep his eye in the eyepiece because he was weeping so much when we were shooting the Marley scene in the vet’s office and I told Owen, I said, “You’re wasting your life in comedy, man…” [Laughs]

OW: And I agreed. [Laughs]

DF: I think what’s impressive about Jen and Owens’ performance is the range they display that so many of us haven’t seen.

EI: Can you talk about the exciting moments or the memorable moments of the film for you?

JA: There were so many. Well, the dog-training scene was really fun. It was funny. Hot, but funny.

OW: Like temperature…

JA: Temperature. Thanks for clarifying. [Laughs] Kathleen Turner was great! That was funny, but that was also hot. It’s humid in Miami. There was not really a day that wasn’t. Running with the puppy on the beach…

OW: Oh yeah. Actually, that was very…

DF: How about the baseball game? That was probably actually the most fun.

OW: And you were really fast (to Jennifer). You could really run.

JA: We have the highlights. Do you feel like you’ve got your question answered? Whoo!

EI: Did you improvise much?

JA: We definitely had a little bit. There was this thing called the montage, where Owen does this really fast monologue over all these little clips…

OW: You said it was the fastest you’ve ever heard me speak.

JA: The fastest I’ve ever heard Owen speak, and it was amazing, but there was a lot of fun dialogue in those little vignettes that we did…

OW: Yeah, let’s do a little bit of it now. [Laughs] The part I remember is us coming home arguing about our bills…

EI: A lot of couples, when they have problems, go to see a shrink. Do you believe in that to solve your communication problems?

JA: We didn’t do that.

OW: Probably anything helps…

JA: Whatever works.

OW: You’ve got to keep that beautiful thing going, yeah. [Laughs]

EI: I was at the screening. We are all hardcore journalists, but everybody seemed to be crying at the end. It was like a Bambi moment. [Laughs]  What’s your Bambi moment?

JA: My Bambi moment where I cried so hard like a child? Well, the first one that I can remember very clearly, where I cried kind of like when I watched this movie, which was rare and odd, was The Champ. Rick Schroeder. [Laughs]

EI: Do have any special preparation for this character because they were real life people? Or was it like any other part?

JA: I wasn’t allowed to prepare. [Laughs] Ask my director why. [Laughs]

DF: Jen wnated to do a lot of research and really prepare the scenes…

JA: …Which I usually do for my job.

DF: I wanted her to just be responding in the moment to whatever Owen did or whatever the dog did, or whatever she was feeling, and I think that it’s a very raw performance as a result.

JA: It was some of the best direction, I think.

DF: The best preparation. For me, it’s always going through the script and just talking about the stuff… 

OW: And you guys did a big re-write and stuff, but just kind of going through and making sure that everything you say makes sense to you, or you understand what’s going on.  But also the Grogans were there. They came and visited the set, but that was more me kind of wondering, “I wonder what he thinks about me playing him,” and I think it was very strange for them, but they had a good experience and were in the movie. You did also feel a responsibility because so many people loved the book, you want to be faithful to that and reward that experience that people had with the book.

EI: A question to both of you as dog owners: Could you relate? Or tell those moments with your own personal dogs…

JA: Well, not yet, but for me, the most heartbreaking was sending Marley away, like the final (scene). My dog is thirteen, and this movie is like post-traumatic stress disorder of what’s it’s going to be when my dog goes. But that scene was almost harder. There was a point towards the end… We shot the Pennsylvania section, so there was mornings I would go in, I couldn’t even read the sides. I just would have to hope that I could, when I got to set, I would just look at them and I would think, thank god for my sitcom career and being able to learn lines very fast. [Laughs]

OW: I know that when we first moved out in Los Angeles and I was living with my younger brother, we were living in not a great part of town and we had our dog, a chocolate brown lab out there with us, Blue. And we were robbed three times at our house — twice with our dog there [laughs], and the cop was like, “I think you need to get a new dog.” [Laughs] Labradors are so friendly, even to criminals. [Laughs]

EI: You both achieved success in your careers. When you look back a couple of years ago, did you think it was going to be what it is now?

JA: No.

EI: Do you feel proud? What is your relationship with your own fans?

JA: Amazing. I never thought I would ever… Like I said, I was just happy to work, and I don’t know them all personally, but they’re very kind.

OW: It was funny. The first movie that we worked on was Bottle Rocket, and they just had a Criterion DVD come out on that, and so they had the “making-of” and some different things, and it was odd, especially, watching the short film that we made and hearing our accents were so strong. I guess I still have an accent, but Luke’s accent sounded like he was Gone With The Wind [laughs] — so southern. I don’t see how we made it! [Laughs] But that’s what we’re talking about. You can’t really plan the way stuff works out — just be open to the ride.

EI: Jennifer, forgetting all this craziness of the tabloids, how would you describe yourself at this time? I mean, how is Jennifer Aniston the person — personally and professionally?

JA: Well, like I said, I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life, and physically feel the best that I’ve ever felt, and I feel happier than I’ve ever felt. My career is going where I want it to go, and I’m working. I get to work with great people. I feel really pretty fortunate.

EI: For Jennifer — what are you wearing?

JA: Roland Mouret.

EI: You also have another movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, coming out. Can you tell us something about…

JA: We want to talk about that here?

EI: You’re not doing the junket for it.

JA: Okay. That movie is more of an ensemble film. I’m lucky to work with Ben [Affleck], and our story is I have been in a relationship for seven years, and I’m at the point where I’m really having that itch of wanting to get married and he truly just does not believe in marriage as an institution. She can’t understand how that doesn’t translate into that he doesn’t truly love her, so that’s their power struggle and their conflict, and what eventually pushes them apart…but then interesting things happen. It’s nice and it explores all different troubles that people have in relationships. It’s really fun.