Somehow Star Magazine secured a maybe-exclusive interview with Jennifer Aniston in which she promotes Marley & Me, her upcoming dog-centered film with Owen Wilson. The movie is not scheduled for release until Christmas, so I’m kind of perplexed why she’s talking about it now to a gossip magazine. Star has actual quotes from Aniston, it’s written out like an interview and there are no “insiders” or “onlookers” mentioned, so we can assume it’s legitimate. I can’t remember reading an interview with her since she was promoting her kiss on Dirt with Courteney Cox in early 2007. That’s a year and a half ago.

Aniston gives pretty straightforward and honest answers and says that she bonded with her canine costar in the film and that she loves having dogs because they help welcome her home every day. She says children are a little harder to work with than dogs when asked about it. That’s probably because they have to remember their lines and dogs are just being themselves, but behaving on cue.

Star doesn’t provide a context for the interview or mention if it was over the phone or anything. The introduction just focuses on the plot of Aniston’s film Marley & Me, which is based on a book about a couple with a misbehaving dog. Aniston calls it “a beautiful examination of this marriage and life.”

In Marley & Me, you worked with a dog. But what was it like with your human costar, Owen Wilson?
It was instant chemistry. I felt comfortable with him, like we’d known each other for a while.

And how about the dog who played Marley. Was it tough to say good-bye?
Oh, that was hard. I was quite emotional. We really bonded. The whole experience was special and extraordinary. We did sort of become a family. Everyone was so invested in the story.

Is it harder to work with dogs than kids?
Children actually were trickier than the dogs! It was so funny, because in a lot of the takes you hear Mathilda, the dog trainer, saying either ‘back, back, back, move, sit!’ while we’re literally doing our dialogue. We had to tune it out.

You must have been used to the commotion, since you have two dogs. What’s so special about being a dog owner?
It’s nice to open your door and have somebody run to you and jump on you and kiss you because they cannot believe that you are actually back. They are so excited; they love you. It’s quite simple.

Besides your love of dogs, what else makes you happy?
A sunset makes me happy. Really silly things, like being with my friends with a bottle of wine and some nice cheese.

So then, what makes you unhappy?
I hate arguments. I don’t like bad feelings between people. I hate negativity. You have to have a positive approach to life.

[From Star Magazine, print edition, August 11, 2008]

We really haven’t heard much from Aniston directly and most of the stories about her have focused on gossip about her love life with John Mayer. If she did give an exclusive interview to Star and this isn’t from a press session then she deserves a lot of credit for playing nice. Just last week they had a big story about how she was too clingy and driving Mayer away. The article relied heavily on photos of the couple to make an unflattering point about their relationship. It probably wasn’t out yet when she gave this interview, but they’ve run plenty of other rude stories about her in the past. She’s definitely being gracious by giving this interview and you wonder if it was strained at all.

Jennifer Aniston is shown on the set of Marley & Me below on 05/19/08. She is also shown walking one of her dogs on 2/18/07. Credit: Fame.