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Jennifer Aniston is known for being one of the stars of FRIENDS and has also appeared in many other TV shows and movies, including Bruce Almighty, The Morning Show, and We're The Millers. What is clear to everyone from her many roles is that she seems to be an expert at comedic timing.
However, what many people might not know is that Aniston was always destined to be a comedic success in one way or another, as the humor she has is something that she has had since childhood. But was it her natural sense of humor that managed to land her all of these great roles? Or, is she just an amazing actress?
Jennifer Aniston Is Surprisingly Good At Comedy
Aniston has always been known to snap up comedy roles and many would think that this only started happening due to her often comedic portrayal as Rachel Green in FRIENDS. However, she actually started appearing in sitcoms and other comedic roles from the very beginning of her career.
Her first role was in the sitcom Molloy, which only aired for seven episodes in 1990; so definitely not reaching anywhere near the success that FRIENDS reached, but it still put her in a prime position to be put forward for many other sitcom roles — as has been seen throughout the whole of her career.
Her first role in a comedy film was in She's The One, which is a 1996 film, so came after FRIENDS. Given this was her first role in a comedy film, her first movie role being in the 1993 horror film Leprechaun alongside Warrick Davis, it's possible that Aniston was spotted for her comedic abilities and felt like the perfect fit for the role.
However, it was most certainly FRIENDS that first launched Aniston as a comedic star. In fact, it wasn't just down to good writing and acting that she was able to get big laughs from an audience.
FRIENDS was known to have quite a few unscripted moments on the show, and it was often these moments that caused the biggest laughs. These were often caused by Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the show, who would often suggest to the writers and producers some new lines to try and get more laughs.
Jennifer Had Great Comedic Timing On FRIENDS
Not only did Perry deliver unscripted lines, but this seemed to be a common theme within the cast. Matt LeBlanc, who played Joey Tribbiani, and Aniston also delivered some unscripted lines in the show.
In fact, in season six in the episode 'The One After Vegas', Aniston surprised the audience (and more than likely the writers and producers of the episode) by delivering the unscripted line "come on Ross, this is not a marriage, this is the world's worst hangover."
This caused the audience to roar with laughter and the laughter was said to be so loud that when they were in post-production with the episode, the sound department and editors had to edit out a lot of the laughter so that the audience at home could actually hear the line being delivered.
Once the FRIENDS bubble had burst, Aniston enjoyed a variety of different comedic roles in both TV and film, all with varying levels of success.
Some of her lesser successful comedy roles that didn't do well at the box office include Friends With Money, She's Funny That Way, and Management.
However, as she's Jennifer Aniston, not all of her comedy roles have been flops and have actually been quite successful. This includes Marley & Me, Horrible Bosses, and Murder Mystery.
Jennifer Aniston Was Always The Class Clown
It has often been said that what you end up doing as a career when you're an adult can stem from what you were like as a child. For example, Kate Winslet's teacher has spoken about how she was an amazing actress in school, which clearly set the precedent for her work as an actor today.
The same happened to Aniston. It may not come as a surprise to fans of the actress that she was known as the class clown during her time in school.
This was due to her diagnosis of dyslexia. She wasn't diagnosed until she was in her twenties, however, like many people with the condition, she struggled with her schoolwork, so took to humor as a way to cope with her struggles.
For this reason, this goes to show the humor runs through her bones and that her work as a comedy actress isn't just down to good writing and production; but is due to her natural comedy talents.
In fact, a 2001 article from Rolling Stone about her rise to fame was even titled "How a class clown became Hollywood's hottest chick."
Jennifer noted that she was happy to do comedy, because it made people happy.
I do know that funny was always good. And I made everybody laugh.
Aniston even called herself a "goober" in one interview (during her marriage to Brad Pitt), shirking the label of 'sexy couple' in favor of focusing on their ability to crack each other up.
Clearly, Aniston has never forgotten where she came from, and fans love her for it.