Published January 13, 2015
What Jennifer Aniston really wanted to do was direct.
And what the TV and film star wants...
The result, "Room 10," played out at a star-strewn Hollywood premiere Monday night at the Directors Guild of America.
The short film, co-directed by Aniston and Andrea Buchanan, features Robin Wright Penn as a nurse whose relationship with an emergency-room patient (Kris Kristofferson) changes her life.
She waited a long time to get behind the camera, Aniston, 37, told AP Television.
"I was slotted to direct an episode of `Friends.' And then I got (the feature film) `The Good Girl.' So, you either got `The Good Girl' or you got a very bad direction of `Friends.' But, anyway, because I was doing them at the same time, I lost my (directing) slot. And why I never did it again after that, I don't know. I think it was just timing."
Aniston was in an upbeat mood as she strolled through the press gauntlet in the lobby. On Monday's "Oprah" she had revealed she is still with boyfriend Vince Vaughn, though he was not there on the arrivals line. No, she told Winfrey, she hasn't had breast implants. (She said she simply gained 10 pounds.) But, yes, she does have a new bundle of joy at home: a five-month-old German shepherd named Dolly.
With the gossip air cleared on "Oprah," Aniston's work was the hottest topic on the arrivals line. "What I really like about (Aniston) is that she knows what she wants," noted Kristofferson, who has worked with such directing heavyweights as Martin Scorsese, Alan J. Pakula and Tim Burton. "And ... she's not afraid to tell an old guy like me what to do and how to do it."
Penn, who attended the premiere with her actor-director husband Sean, said Aniston "was very loving and calm and knew what she wanted. She's not aggressive, meaning mean. But (she's) assertive with her vision, and making sure that everybody was in the team together."
"Room 10" was one of three films that resulted from "Glamour" magazine's "Reel Moments" competition, which began with stories submitted to the magazine. Besides Aniston and Buchanan, actress Bryce Dallas Howard ("The Village") and comic-writer Carol Leifer (TV's "Seinfeld") each directed "Reel Moments" shorts that also debuted Monday night.
The event served as a reminder that male directors dominate Hollywood. "Hopefully this will change some of that," Aniston said, adding she'd love to direct again. "I think the female perspective is a really interesting one — not better or worse. I just think it's different."
Aniston's summer blockbuster "The Break-Up" arrives on DVD today. She's credited as a producer on Scorcese's widely acclaimed box-office hit, "The Departed." And she's working on the thriller "Wanted," in which she'll act alongside Meryl Streep.
Is working with Streep intimidating?
"C'mon," Aniston laughed. "Are you kidding? Does the bear, you know, in the woods?"
https://www.foxnews.com/story/jennifer-aniston-makes-directing-debut-with-room-10