Jennifer Aniston's Interview With Parade Magazine

Posted on September 16, 2009 - 5:00pm by tammy Jennifer Aniston recently sat down with Parade.com to dish about her new romantic comedy, Love Happens, her interest in self-help books, her admission of fighting dirty, and those pesky gossip tabloids. Here are some highlights: Keeping the lid on her personal life. "I feel like it's no one's business. I don't know about your life. I don't want to, truthfully. It's not my business. It's a very strange thing. But somehow it's like there was some clause somewhere that said, Well, you're a public person so we get to go into your house and search through your drawers.' I don't know who came up with it because I wouldn't have signed on. I don't think anybody would have." But fans can't seem to get enough. "It's embarrassing that people are focused so much and putting so much money into gossip magazines to escape. The paparazzi and the magazines deserve their share of the blame, but they're just supplying a demand. It's unfortunate that people don't care that they've been lied to, they don't care that they're being sort of messed with and not given the full truth. They buy them anyway." There's nothing wrong with a little advice. "I'm always going to be interested if somebody gives me a self-help book. I'll at least give it the first couple of pages because sometimes they speak and sometimes they don't. But they're worth investigating." And don't criticize her for it. "I say to people who look down their noses at motivational books, Screw them.' I'm telling you, people have got to mind their own business. It just shows, so obviously, their own fear or resentment. They put down somebody else's choice to sort of make themselves feel superior. They could probably use a little self-help themselves." Learning about romance from doing romantic movies. "They probably don't help because one is work and one is life. I certainly try to access my personal life when I'm doing my job. But you know what they say, Art imitates life, life imitates art.'" Her own prescription for living. "I say, Stay positive.' It doesn't mean that we can get through anything. But we have to recognize that it's fear that sort of sets everything on fire and spreads until everybody kind of gets on the fear bandwagon. That's just ridiculous." How to argue with someone you care about. "I'm not a fighter, I'm a discusser. I could probably use more fight in me. I don't yell. I talk. I can get dirty. I've been guilty of dirty fighting. But usually I don't like to fight. I like it to be harmonious and fun. So the quicker we can discuss an issue and get through it, the sooner we get back to the fun." The rocky road to success. "I made my allowance as a kid cleaning toilets. I'm actually pretty good at it. I grew up with absolutely no money at all. I struggled for a while, but I was happy with my life whether I was making this amount of money, or that amount of money. I always enjoyed where I was working. I loved being a waitress. OK, I didn't like time-share selling, I hated that job. But people used to say to me, You need to focus on having ambition.' And I guess sort of following that advice allowed a lot to come to me. There's just been a great ease with that evolvement in my life to being an actress. I didn't change that much, but my bank account changed."