This might be Jennifer Aniston’s best week in ten years. Easily. And as such, I have to give it to her. She hustled, she played the game, she shilled and shook hands and ignored all of the haters and she got more than she was expecting: within 26 hours, she got a Golden Globe nomination and a SAG nomination, both for Best Actress in film. She’s never gotten a major nomination for her work in film (all of her big awards were for Friends), so… good for her.

She also got to issue statements of thanks on both days. After her SAG nomination, this was her statement: “This is the best 6 a.m. wake up call ever. Words can’t describe how blessed I feel to be recognized like this by my peers for this film. What an enormous feeling of joy and gratitude.” Then she got the Golden Globe nomination yesterday and she made this statement: “I’m just humbled. It’s just all happening so fast and so beautifully. The Globes are a big fun party and it’s so fun to celebrate with your peers. My friend Emily [Blunt] is nominated so I’m excited for her. We’re just going to have a fun night.” Yes, a fun night… with no Brangelina showdown! Oh well. I’m sure Aniston has been celebrating for days. Anyway, Aniston also has some new interviews (done before the nominations) and my God, this woman can hustle. From the Hollywood Reporter:

She’s so happy to be talking about work: “I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to be in a conversation that has to do with something other than trite, silly, you know, ‘Are you pregnant?’ ‘When are you this?’ ‘What’s your hair doing?’ You know, or, ‘You’re just a rom-com person!’ Anything just to have a discussion about the work!”

Her future as a dramatic actress: “I want to make great films. I just want to be working with great directors, doing great stories, not just sitting in that one little category. I understand having to earn your way. I also understand earning people’s trust that you are able to do it. It’s a catch-22. It’s like, well, you have to let me do it to show you, but you won’t let me do it because I’m in that category.”

Her early days in LA, working on pilots that never went anywhere: “I was thrilled to work! I was working more than any of my friends, and I was working way more than I did in New York City. I was like, “Great, I’ve got a great job. Come to it, go.” So when you don’t have any kind of awareness of that, there’s no barometer. I was just happy to be working.

Being seen as only a comedic actress: “I mean, and it’s been a frustrating thing, because — look, I love what I do. I love every job I’ve had, whether they’ve bombed or been successes — and thankfully, we’ve had more successes than we’ve had failures. But it’s like I was saying: I feel like every actor, or at least the ones that are maybe stereotyped, maybe like myself, or put into a category of “They’re this or they’re not, we’ll keep it that” — you know, there’s always this actor wanting to get out. We’re all closeted actors like, wanting to do that other part, because we have access to that ability because that’s what we do. We’re actors. So you have to kind of bang your drum a little louder or go get it yourself or go make it yourself, because there is a little bit of a, “No, we don’t see you in that light, and I don’t trust you.” That’s why it’s so fabulous, these young filmmakers actually find it exciting to go, “Let me put this person, not the expected choice, in that.”

Making a film about chronic pain: “Well, what’s interesting is in the Q&A last night — I did a Q&A and this woman said something to the effect of, “I live with chronic pain, and a lot of people think we’re faking it, and we’re not. We are in severe pain. It took everything in my body, my power to get here tonight, because I wanted to see this movie.” I’ve been getting so much of that, of people saying, “Thank you for portraying it so beautifully,” which couldn’t be a higher compliment to me, because I didn’t want a false note in any of it. I was trying to do something I had no connection, — realistic connection — to, basing it on knowing people and feeling their pain. But also, chronic pain isn’t something that you can diagnose because it’s really a patient to patient sort of declaration of, “I have pain.” You can’t sort of, you know, give the test and say, “You, in fact, do have chronic pain.” There are people out there who are kind of just playing it up because they want the drugs.

Being called ‘brave’ for going without makeup: “That’s so funny, how that’s so “brave.” I understand it, though. It’s Hollywood.”

[From The Hollywood Reporter]

That interview is actually really, really long and she answers questions about her entire career. It’s worth a read if you like her. She also invited THR into her Bel Air home, and the whole thing took place in “Justin’s office.” Well played, girl.

Jennifer also has a decent interview with HitFix – go here to read. She talks at length about creating the character in Cake, her research for the film, how she “begged” for the role and all of that. She also shills for Justin Theroux’s show, The Leftovers! Because of course! She says she watches every episode on Sunday and she has her theories and Justin won’t ever spoil the story for her.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.