14 DAY TRIAL // Jennifer Aniston has had a very long and successful career in film but never before has she gotten even remotely close to getting people to say her name in an Oscars conversation. That changed this year, when she has a new movie coming out, “Cake,” for which she’s getting a lot of Oscar buzz.
“Cake” premiered at the Toronto Film Festival but failed to secure a distributor after the screening, though most critics were impressed both with the film and with Aniston’s performance in it. This is when the Oscar buzz started picking up, with voices claiming that the role could be her vehicle to her first Best Actress nomination.
Riding on this wave, the producers of the film (allegedly with money from Aniston herself) started a distribution company so that they could put “Cake” for one week in theaters in December, enough to have it qualify for the Oscar race.
An Oscar campaign focused on Aniston’s “transformation”
So far, the wide public hasn’t seen as much as a trailer from the film, though short videos, like the one embedded below, have been released after it was picked up for limited US distribution.
With nothing to go on but this vague “buzz,” the campaign is heavily relying on Aniston’s transformation for the role, which implied gaining a few pounds, wearing baggy and unstylish clothes, and not wearing any makeup, just some prosthetics to the face and neck. Basically, what most women do when they’re not up to dolling up, minus the prosthetics.
At one point, someone from the production even praised Aniston for being so “brave” as to go makeup-free, while she suggested that she was Method acting by not being her glamorous self for once in front of the camera, though it was clear that the role went against that.
Right now, the entire Oscar buzz is being fueled by Aniston’s camp and centered on her so-called “dramatic” transformation for the role.
Aniston plays it coy, acts as if she has no idea about this
With all this, she tries to act as if she has no idea that people are saying she’s got good chances this award season.
Asked by People magazine how she feels when she hears her name in the same sentence as the much-coveted Oscar statuette, the former “Friends” star is “surprised” to hear the question. However, she admits she’s “flattered” by it, saying she’s handling the whole thing “awkwardly and stutteringly,” perhaps in a bid to appear humble.
If Aniston really wants that Oscar (be it just a nomination), she should ditch the fake humility or any trace of humble-bragging and just own it. She might also do more of what she does in the same People interview, i.e. take the focus off the fact that she’s not wearing makeup and shine it on how amazing the character she plays is.
“It was just a wonderfully beautiful story of a woman in extraordinary pain, living through an unthinkable trauma,” she says. “I also found her quite humorous and quite endearing. You have empathy for the character.”
“Cake” will be out in a limited run next month, with a wide release pending on box office reception from this one. For a taste of what’s coming, check out the video below and the photos in the gallery.
