It’s not easy to stop a group of beauty editors and influencers in their tracks, but when Jennifer Aniston walked into the room at 1 Hotel in West Hollywood on a Thursday afternoon, everyone looked up from their phones in awe. There’s something magnetic about her. Even in the Instagram age, when it’s easier than ever for us to track every move our favorite celebrities make, Aniston is much more private and elusive. But in person, she’s warm and, dare I say, normal. And she still has that Friends wit about her. “I’m so excited to be here with Aveeno, my best friend since I was a teenager,” Aniston says, making the room laugh along with her. “And I’m so excited because my favorite things are scientists and dermatologists.”
We were invited by Aveeno to learn about the microbiome — or healthy bacteria — in our skin. Dermatologist and author Jessica Wu and Johnson & Johnson research and development scientist Kim Capone schooled us on skin and gut health while Aniston took questions from the audience. (She could absolutely have a career as a talk show host if she gets tired of this acting and producing thing.) After the panel, I sat down with Aniston to talk Los Angeles wellness trends, her new Apple TV+ series, and owning your power.
On her current wellness routine:
“In the last year, I’ve been doing celery juice first thing in the morning,” Aniston tells Allure. “But you have to wait a half hour [to eat], so that’s when the meditation happens. I have to force myself not to go right to my coffee.” She follows up the celery with a sH๏τ of apple cider vinegar diluted in water, which is said to help lower your blood sugar and cholesterol. “I also take a probiotic, obviously,” she adds.
On her simple skin-care routine:
Less is more when it comes to her skin. “I don’t overwash my face because you don’t want to strip away too much,” Aniston says. “And then I just put on nourishing things I feel are as organic as possible.”
On how the conversation around aging is changing:
Aniston isn’t offended by talk of “anti-aging” in the beauty world, but she does feel there are better ways to get the message across. “Very little offends me, but what I do think is becoming dated are things like, ‘Oh, you look great for your age,'” she says. “Because at a certain point, you should start to look like sнιт? Because that’s what that is implying. Like, ‘You should look like hell right now!'”
On the Aveeno products she’s been using for years:
One of the main reasons Aniston wanted to get involved with Aveeno is because she’s been using the brand’s simple, effective products for decades. “The Aveeno moisturizer is the one I’ve been using since I was a teenager,” she says. But she didn’t always make great beauty decisions back then. “You didn’t really know anything else but to put on moisturizer and to over-pancake your face. That’s what the ’80s were.”
On how what goes into your body matters:
We’re learning more about aging, she explains, so of course we’re going to look great later in life. “Science is expanding, and technology is incredible, and there are all of these things that we’re learning that our parents’ generation and their parents’ generation didn’t know,” she says. “They were smoking or putting all sorts of preservatives in their body they didn’t know about. We understand now that what you put in your body affects what you look like on the outside. We’re becoming more conscious of that cycle.”
On what she wishes publications would stop doing:
Aniston doesn’t have social media, and she’s not easily offended by what she sees online. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have feelings about certain editorial practices. “We have to stop naming someone’s name and putting their name next to it,” she says, laughing. “I also think we need to take away comment sections. When people say, ‘Don’t read the comments,’ well, I’ve read comments. I’m not an idiot. But it’s a horrible, horrible thing to do, which creates stress, which raises your cortisol, and then you break out.”
On her new Apple TV+ series, The Morning Show:
Aniston stars alongside Reese Witherspoon, and they both act as co-executive producers on Apple TV+’s first series. Aniston plays Alex Levy, a TV journalist who is told she’s pᴀssed her “sell-by date.” The show features themes such as aging and the #MeToo movement, all things Aniston feels strongly about. “We tackle a lot of stuff that is of the old guard: the Sєxism, the ageism, the racism, the lack of diversity, the compeтιтion,” she says. “In a very unapologetic way, we address a lot of messy things, which is why it’s so fun and exciting.”
On how society is starting to change:
“Women are really finding their voices, realizing that it’s all a charade,” she says of the bosses and executives at the top of companies. “They don’t have the power. We all have the power. It’s just about taking it. And it doesn’t mean screaming about it or beating people down. It’s just owning it. Because then people can be receptive to it instead of wanting to cower from it. And not be called a bitch. But it’s like, ‘No. I’m just strong. I’m not a bitch.’ Men in those positions of power are considered incredible, powerful men, and women are not, but I think it’s really shifting and changing, and I’m excited to be a part of that.”