Jennifer Aniston has revealed that she had the “hardest day” of her life while filming her upcoming movie ‘Cake’.
Jen’s latest role in the brooding dramatic film is generating major Oscar buzz and sees the former Friends star make a major departure from her usual romantic comedy oeuvre as a pill addicted woman battling chronic pain.
“It was the hardest day of my life,” Jen, revealed about one of her days filming on set.
Jennifer 45, star was speaking to the crowd during a Q & A session at a special preview screening of Cake in Hollywood when she revealed the difficulties she experienced shooting a scene in which her character Claire Bennett is submerged in a pool.
“I basically have a fear of going under water,” she explained. “As a kid I was with my brother and [I] was driving my tricycle around the swimming pool and drove my tricycle into the swimming pool and I didn’t let go.”
“I can’t go under water and no one believed me,” she continued, referring to her fellow cast members and crew. “I’m like, ‘I honestly can’t.’ Just to get the one shot of me going under [water] with the weight, I think we did that 30 times.”
Clearly Jen’s bravery has paid off as she has already received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Drama for her role in the film. She has also been nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award and Broadcast Film Critics Association Award and next week’s Academy Awards nominations announcement will tell whether she’ll be up for an Oscar too.
“It wasn’t a romantic comedy, it wasn’t,” she said of the heart-wrenching movie. “It was honestly the first time for me to be able to do a true study of a character. Even though in my movies I’ve played women in different situations, this was a real physical challenge and an emotional challenge… I’ve been dying to do for years.”
“I worked with a lot of incredible people,” Aniston said when she described how she gained her understanding of the issue of chronic pain and pill addiction.
“I had quite a support team. From doctors, therapists, [and] a woman who coached me just to really understand the chronology of the time… understanding with the doctors, what is it like when you have a Vicodin, Percocet and a bottle of booze, are you stumbling?”
“Sometimes you’re stumbling or sometimes the pain is so great that you’re still somehow managing. It’s a real varying degree of that, and we were so hell-bent on really portraying this as accurate as possible.”
There’s no doubt that the role saw Jen push herself both physically and emotionally into new areas she’d never explored before. We hope that her hard work pays off and lands the gorgeous star the Oscar that she deserves!
