Is There Life After Friends? Jennifer Anniston Doesn't Want to Be Rachel Anymore

Not yet.
The breakthrough role for Jennifer Anniston that will take her the next step up hasn't happened yet. How close is she? Uh, I don't know.
Corny as it sounds, I'd give Jennifer Anniston an "A Plus" for effort. Of all of the former cast members from Friends, I think she's worked the hardest, and has tried to find movies to do that are, more often than not, risky and challenging.
No, forget about Matthew Perry's dumb The Whole Nine Yards. Lucky Numbers didn't do Lisa Kudrow any favors. The less said about the overrated Scream (sorry, Courteney), the better. Breast Men? Why, David? And Joey was The Incredible Shrinking Sitcom for Matt LeBlanc, wasn't it?
When these guys pray at night, what they're probably saying is, "Thank God for the royalty checks."
But Jennifer doesn't have to be embarrassed. Not too much, anyway. Well, now that you mention it, awkward miscues like Along Came Polly and Rumor Has It shouldn't have happened. So what? Everybody makes mistakes, the last I heard. Looked at your high school yearbook picture lately? If I seem charitable, maybe it's because unlike a trust fund baby such as the vacuous Paris Hilton, Jennifer is talented. She is an actress.
For example, The Good Girl was a brave departure for her. The quirky neo-noir thriller Derailed with Clive Owen took some nerve. And her new movie, Friends With Money is smart, has a great cast (Joan Cusak, Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand), actually has something worthwhile to say, and is sensitively directed by Nicole Holocene (Lovely andAmazing). It's the best movie she's appeared in so far.
Yeah, Jennifer keeps working. Now, have people stopped automatically associating her with Friends ? No, not yet.
She isn't Rachel Green anymore, but Jennifer hasn't found a strong identity apart from the successful, long-running television series yet either. It's still vague and out of focus.
If Jennifer doesn't know, why should we?
And there's another problem:
The scandalous Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie nonsense. Why is it a problem? Because it's more interesting to talk about than any of the movies Jennifer's been in.
That's a "Houston, We Have A Problem" type of problem, isn't it?
It's too bad that whenever you see her face, what comes to mind is: "Oh yeah, she's that woman from - don't tell me - Friends ! Jenny Something, right? Used to be Brad Pitt's ex-wife." Please don't pretend you didn't, OK? That's not being honest.
I wish I had a buck for every "Poor, Lonely Jen" story I saw on the cover of People or The National Enquirer. Oh yeah. If I did, Steve ("We are the iPod! Prepare to be assimilated!") Jobs would be cleaning my pool right now.
Whenever an actor's tabloid life is getting more attention than the TV shows or movies they're are in, that actor's career is definitely in trouble. Hey, did Sharon Stone get plastic surgery? Jump on any sofas lately, Tom? How many marriages is it now, J. Lo? Sure, it's unfair, but I'm hearing more about Jennifer and Brad selling the estate they used to own than about Friends With Money.
Which brings us back to where we started from. At present, Jennifer is standing at the corner of Used-To-Be Street and Not-Good-Enough Boulevard. Until she finds that breakthrough role, she will not be taken seriously as an actress. Jennifer will remain an obscure answer in a game of Trivial Pursuit.
But not if she gets the right character in the right movie at the right time.
Look at Jack Nicholson. For years, he worked anonymously doing numerous so-bad-they're-almost-good Roger Corman movies. But then, choosing a role that Rip Torn refused, he played the unforgettable George Hanson in Easy Rider. From the moment he made his appearance, Jack was the brake that brought the movie to a sudden stop because everybody couldn't keep their eyes off of him. It's rumored that the real reason George was killed in Easy Rider was because Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper realized way too late that the audience didn't care what happened to Wyatt and Billy. Other than ex-Enron CEOs, actors are people who are given permission to steal.
And how about Morgan Freeman, just another unemployed actor after The Electric Company ended, who resurrected his career with his ferocious portrayal as "Fast Black", a homicidal pimp in Street Smart? Before Joe Pesci was Jake La Motta in Raging Bull, he was managing an Italian restaurant in Brooklyn where De Niro and Scorsese ate too much linguini. John Travolta was like a fearless gambler who won big at Las Vegas (Saturday Night Fever), lost all his money (Look Who's Talking), then got it back again (Pulp Fiction).
Is Jennifer Anniston next? Well, it depends on whether she ever finds that magic screenplay where a vibrant, full-bodied character will step from the pages and say, "Hello, Jen. Took you long enough to get here. But we're gonna kick some serious ass."
Until then, Jennifer is still working hard. That's got to count for something, right?
Oh, her newest movie, The Break-Up, premieres in June.
Good luck, Jenny.