Jennifer Aniston Watch

It seems like fate that Jen, who dotes on her two dogs, would star in Marley & Me, based on John Grogan’s memoir about “life and love with the world’s worst dog.” Interestingly, though, this dog person nearly dismissed it as a “dog movie” - until she read the script. According to a recent Los Angeles Times interview, she was skeptical at first, not only of the script but the book as well, but needless to say, she soon came around:

Three people had gotten her the book for Christmas last year, including her father. “I thought, this isn’t a book I’m going to sit down and read, because it’s got a dog on the cover,” she says. “I don’t know why I had that weird prejudice against it.” She had a similar reaction to the script initially. “I was like ‘Uck, a dog movie?’ ” she recalls, but quickly revised her opinion upon reading it. “It’s so much more than a dog movie, it’s this beautiful portrait of a marriage and this 15-year span between these two people and this sweet little unconditionally loving creature that sort of walks through it with them.”

In show business, they tell you never to work with children or animals - and it would seem that this would not bode well for a movie about a dog and a family. However, this adage proved untrue in the case of Marley & Me:

“It wasn’t just children or a dog in a scene or two, this was every day . . . It was perfect. Everybody was in love with everybody.”

That’s not to say that there weren’t certain canine hijinks on the set. The dogs who played Marley were as hyperactive and destructive as the original - with the full blessing of the trainers:

Jennifer Aniston recalls her introduction to her costar, a yellow lab named Clyde. “I walked onto the set and put my sweater and my bag down on the couch, and that dog leapt up onto the couch, grabbed my sweater and started ripping it,” she says. The trainers responded immediately, but not as she expected. “They said, ‘good, good boy!’ and gave him treats.”

She did have wonderful things to say about another costar in this film. Owen Wilson, her screen husband, had a notoriously difficult year prior to filming, but according to Jen, he arrived on the set fully ready to play the part of John Grogan:

“Owen Wilson is so divine in this film,” she says. “I’ve never seen him play a part like this. He was a man; he was a husband; he was a father. And I feel like, how brave of him, to walk through the year that he walked through,” and still show up so wholeheartedly for the film.

Overall, Jen said that she enjoyed working on the film, and she is so satisfied with the outcome of the shoot that she goes so far as to refer to it as a “creative, emotional home run.” I for one look forward to seeing it, and to hearing more as the holiday movie season progresses.

Looking forward to Marley & Me? Check out Susan’s post about dog movies on My Friendly Pets for other furry flick picks.