Interview: Jennifer Aniston on "The Break-Up"

"The Break-Up" opens this weekend amidst the hype and hoopla of Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn's not-so-secret off screen romance. While most films with on-screen romances tend to be buried under such public scrutiny, "The Break-Up" has been deemed this summer's must-see date movie.

Jennifer plays Brooke Meyers, a woman who decides to break off her relationship with Gary. Neither wants to leave their condo, however, so they engage in a war with friends and family to try to convince the other to leave. But could they in fact inadvertently be saving their relationship in the process?

Below Jennifer talks about the movie and the ironies of doing a movie titled "The Break-Up" after her own much publicized split with Brad Pitt.

Q: Can you talk about working in Chicago and was it your kind of town?

JENNIFER: Yes. It really was. I just had a ball there. There's just something about the people. They're kind, respectful, and it's a feeling and an energy when you walk through the streets of Chicago. You just feel great. The food, the architecture, the theater, the museums - you just have so much. So yeah, I absolutely love it.

Q: Did you get harassed because of your celebrity?

JENNIFER: No. I tell you, there is a level of respect there that you get a crowd but nobody…no, we did not get mugged over.

Q: The movie presents both sides of a couple's break up but did you see your character as the good guy?

JENNIFER: No, and that's how well done it was about how they wrote it. No one is really the bad guy; they're both flawed. They both fall short and that's the problem that they fail to finally communicate in an evolved manner which would've probably solved the whole problem to begin with.

Q: Do you think that as a rule, women do too much in relationships?

JENNIFER: Yeah. You know, I think it's instinctual to be the caretaker in that way of the home and the house. It's only your own fault that you train somebody so that's how it is. You can't blame someone for not knowing what the job should be if you don't ask for it right off the bat.

Q: So what's the art of compromise?

JENNIFER: Compromise? Collaboration, I think, would be a better way. What is the art of collaborating? I think just talking about it. Saying what you need, saying what you want, so it's not a threat to the other person. You're simply saying, "This matters to me." I think people expect people to read minds sometimes. When your mind doesn't get read, you get pissed off about it. It's just all silly human games and nature.

Q: It's really cute how your two characters first meet. What's the cutest way someone has approached you, like with a pick-up line?

JENNIFER: Oh those have never been cute. [Laughter] One guy came up to me and said that he liked my salad. And I didn't know what that meant, I go, "What do you mean 'my salad'"? And he goes, "You know, your salad. Your hair, your makeup, like your salad…" And I go, "Oh God, that was clever."

Q: In "The Break-Up", the nice thing about the characters is that they finally found a resolution and closure. Do you think that's important when a relationship ends?

JENNIFER: I would think so, yeah, for any relationship - romantic, friendship, anything. There should always be a sense of closure or clarity as to why it happened so that you can move cleanly into your next phase.

Q: Can you talk about the irony of doing a movie like this, and then going through one in your personal life?

JENNIFER: The irony of it? Well, yeah, it's pretty ironic. At the time, it was something I thought about it. When I first got the phone call that a movie called "The Break-Up" was coming, I kind of laughed and thought, "That's funny." Sure enough, it was. I kind of found it something like a sign or something to do it. In a way, it's a cathartic thing. I felt very lucky. If this had come to me at any other time, I don't know if I could get it for myself on the level that I would have wanted to as an actor.

"The Break-Up" opens in theaters this Friday.