Jennifer Aniston: How ‘The Morning Show’ felt like 20 years of therapy

Jennifer Aniston keeps a shoe box and a pair of gloves handy because … well, it just happened again. A bird has flown into one of the glass windows of her midcentury Bel-Air home, and Aniston is grabbing the makeshift rescue kit and heading outside. “Oh, honey. Hi, little guy. She’s struggling and she can’t get up.” There’s a pause. “I’m so sorry. Can you hold on a moment?” Aniston mutes our call, returning in five minutes. “We did it, Glenn. We saved him. He might need a wing check, but I think he’s going to be OK.”That Aniston has what she calls a “Dr. Dolittle plan” for the wayward birds in her life surprises exactly no one who knows her. Just before the moment of bird distress, Aniston was peppering me with questions about exercise, hydration and mental and physical well-being. “I love that she’s interviewing you about your health regime,” Kristin Hahn, Aniston’s longtime friend and producing partner, says a couple of days later. “That sounds about right. If you give this woman a problem to solve, she will spend whatever time it takes to come up with a plan and tell you how to deal with it. And I mean, any kind of problem. We call her Dr. Aniston.”Aniston solved the primary problem of her own career — how to find a role that would challenge her in ways she could never expect and make the public not exactly forget that she played Rachel on “Friends,” because that beloved sitcom isn’t going anywhere in our lifetime, but at least showcase her talent in a way that might surprise people. Aniston’s turn as network morning anchor Alex Levy on “The Morning Show,” the flagship series in the Apple TV+ streaming lineup, did just that, earning Aniston the best reviews of her career, an Emmy nomination and a SAG Award in January. “That show was 20 years of therapy wrapped into 10 episodes,” says Aniston, 51. “There were times when I would read a scene and feel like a whole manhole cover was taken off my back.”
You might guess that Aniston could relate to playing a famous woman whose every move is scrutinized and judged, who grapples daily with
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