Jennifer Aniston on anti-vaxxers: 'I've just lost a few people in my weekly routine'
Jennifer Aniston graces the cover of InStyle's September "Fashion Issue," and she addressed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the accompanying cover story by editor-in-chief Laura Brown.
The 52-year-old Friends icon is ramping up promotion for the second season of Apple TV Plus series The Morning Show, expected Sept. 17, and ironically, she told Brown that she usually watches the news.
"I've really had to stop [keeping it on too much]," Aniston said. "We all went through news fatigue, panic fatigue, during the pandemic because we were hoping one day we would wake up and hear something hopeful, and all we got was more insanity."
"And there's still a large group of people who are anti-vaxxers or just don't listen to the facts," the Emmy winner continued. "It's a real shame. I've just lost a few people in my weekly routine who have refused or did not disclose [whether or not they had been vaccinated], and it was unfortunate. I feel it's your moral and professional obligation to inform, since we're not all podded up and being tested every single day. It's tricky because everyone is entitled to their own opinion—but a lot of opinions don't feel based in anything except fear or propaganda."
Aniston said that her "level of anxiety has gone down by eliminating the unnecessary sort of fat in my life that I had thought was necessary" throughout the pandemic. However, The Morning Show press is causing a little bit of anxiety to creep back up.
"I call it the dog-and-pony show—traveling to do press junkets, red carpets, the shiny-penny things," Aniston told Brown. "Do people really need all that? The work is what I love to do. It's the promotion of it that creates some stress in me. You get, like, a second of what it is that you're promoting, and then the rest of it is salacious crap that you somehow got wrangled into talking about. There's a big appetite for that—and listen, I get it. But if you don't give it, then they make it up."
The Morning Show debuted Nov. 1, 2019, and Apple TV Plus streamed the first season's finale episode all the way back on Dec. 20, 2019. The Jay Carson and Kerry Ehrin creation experienced plenty of COVID-related production delays, and the second season trailer finally arrived June 14.
Season 2 is set up to parse through the ramifications of Alex (Aniston) and Bradley's (Reese Witherspoon) decision to literally air out their network's toxic laundry while live on the air. The trailer shows Alex quitting her job and retreating from the public spotlight, leaving Bradley to bear the brunt of the aftermath.
The series also stars Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and more.
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