In the new movie 
Cake, Jennifer Aniston plays a woman 
suffering from chronic, debilitating pain. Her pain is both emotional 
and physical — her anger is so uncontrollable that she has been kicked 
out of her chronic pain support group. "You really do not know what 
happened to this woman," Aniston tells NPR's Rachel Martin. "As the 
story unfolds you slowly start to discover bits of information as to 
what happened and why she is in this state."
   Aniston says 
that's not the kind of narrative that generally gets approved in 
Hollywood, and so she's glad this was an independent film. "It's a 
little bit more risky, but I think the audiences have really been 
appreciating it," she says.
   Aniston talks with Martin about her new film, about the time she spent working on 
Friends, and about her hopes for the future.
On how she played a character who is experiencing pain
   It
 was a lot of studying the back, the leg, the neck. Pretty much every 
single part of her body was hurt, injured. And you really do start to 
manifest odd little, you know, cricks and ... pinches in your neck and 
lower back pain. ... Every week I would have some form of body work, 
just to make sure, you know, my body didn't kind of lock into any of 
that permanently....
   Talking to women, or men, who are 
suffering from chronic pain on a daily basis — it is so unimaginable. I 
mean, I was so grateful for my body at the end of the day.
   
On whether she is at a point in her career where she can pick her projects. 
   Well,
 you can and you can't. The truth is: you can become established in a 
certain category, and I think you are given, you know, offers and 
opportunities based on how the industry sees you fitting into that — 
that job. And sometimes you have to kind of take the reins yourself or 
take a project on and get it made independently so that you can do that 
work [that] not necessarily another director or studio would see you, 
you know, fit for. It is, I've said, such a catch-22. It's like, "I know
 I can do this, you just have to give me the opportunity" and then what 
comes back is: "Well, we can't give you the opportunity because we've 
never seen you do this."
   
On the time she spent on the sitcom Friends
   It
 was awesome. It was the greatest 10 years. The greatest people to work 
with every day, the greatest crew, killer writers. Funny. Beloved by 
people. Not only were we having so much fun ourselves, but the amount of
 love that people felt for that show, still feel for that show, we 
tapped into something. I don't know what the hell, but it was something,
 really kind of struck a nerve that continues to sort of be hit. And I 
think that's so special to be a part of something like that.
   
On the way she thinks about the future
   I
 kind of live in the moment. And I don't have a five-year-plan and I 
don't have, "OK, so what we're going to do now is we're going to go for a
 character that takes you into a real dark territory ..." It's not a 
strategy.
   
On whether she's seeking out dramatic roles
   I
 see what comes to me. I mean, I'd love to play more dramatic roles but I
 love comedic roles. I love just good material. But honestly, after 
doing 
Cake, I feel like I scratched an itch that's been needing
 to be scratched and I want very much to play really wonderful 
characters and telling a story, exposing a human experience, comedy or 
drama or both infused. I mean I think comedy and drama go hand in hand. 
You know, life isn't one or the other.
Source:http://www.npr.org/2015/01/04/374580312/i-was-so-grateful-for-my-body-jennifer-aniston-on-portraying-chronic-pain