Twenty years ago, you would have been hard-pressed to find a celebrity that was bigger than Jennifer Aniston. She was the biggest name on, arguably, the biggest TV series, “Friends,” and her future seemed to be filled with major projects. And yet, while she did have some film successes over the last couple of decades, nothing has ever been able to reach the heights of her NBC sitcom. Now, years later, she’s making a return to TV for Apple’s “The Morning Show,” but according to the actress, her small-screen comeback is partially the fault of those damn Marvel movies.
Speaking to Variety, as part of the Power of Women issue, Aniston explained why she’s coming to TV years after “Friends” and it’s partially to do with the quality of the medium, but also with the lack of other options. Aniston gave her explanation, while also throwing in a little jab at the biggest films on the planet right now — the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
“It wasn’t until the last couple of years when these streaming services were just sort of exploding with this amount of quality that I actually started to think, ‘Wow, that’s better than what I just did,’” said Aniston. “ And then you’re seeing what’s available out there and it’s just diminishing and diminishing in terms of, it’s big Marvel movies. Or things that I’m not just asked to do or really that interested in living in a green screen.”
As for how Marvel movies are “diminishing” the film industry, the actress explained that she misses the days of the mid-budget original films, such as the abundance of rom-coms that Meg Ryan starred in. Or you know, the films that Aniston herself was the star of.
“It’s changed so much,” she said. “I think we would so love to have the era of Meg Ryan come back. I just think it would be nice to go into a movie theater, sit cozy. I think we should have a resurgence. Let’s get the ‘Terms of Endearment’ back out there. You know, ‘Heaven Can Wait,’ ‘Young Frankenstein,’ ‘Blazing Saddles,’ ‘Goodbye Girl.’”
One Aniston film that definitely won’t be coming down the line is the long-discussed “Friends” feature. She revealed that the main cast has discussed it previously, mainly due to the fan outcry, but that it’s likely impossible to ever happen.
Aniston said that the reason there’s never going to be a “Friends” film is “because our producers wouldn’t want it, wouldn’t let us. Look, it’s not been without our desire to, because our fans have wanted it so much.”
In the meantime, if you want to watch some Jennifer Aniston goodness, “The Morning Show” will debut on Apple TV+ when the service launches on November 1.