Jennifer Aniston ('The Morning Show'): "Criticizing and judging has become a sport"
The interpreter and producer of the award-winning 'The Morning Show' talks about the 'culture of cancellation'
Following the explosive events of the first season, the second year of Apple TV+'s award-winning series 'The Morning Show' sees the cast of protagonists rising from the wreckage caused by Alex, a character brilliantly played by Jennifer Aniston. The new world lands in a program where identity realities leave various characters 'canceled'. The narrative struggle around #MeToo continues and other script twists are added, such as the presidential election of Joe Biden and the global impact of Covid-19. In one of the most turbulent years in news, the newsroom of 'The Morning Show' forgets rigor and becomes infected with chaos in what is a delicious satire of current affairs.
Produced by Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, the entire cast returns, an exclusive group that includes Steve Carell, Billy Crudup, Mark Duplass and Marcia Gay Harden.
—In the series you feel the drama and chaos caused by the #MeToo movement and the world's reaction to Covid.
—We have not needed to turn on the imagination because reality offered us an innumerable number of stories. What the writers needed was to carefully weave together the twists and turns of the narrative. We have not moved far from the first season, because the struggles continue to exist, the marginalized referents, the 'cancel culture', each one walking with their faults and problems. There's a lot of self-control and it definitely gets spicy chapter by chapter. It was fun creating a series in real time as we watched the world learn its new normal. We hope we have portrayed it as honestly as possible. We have tried to be responsible without forgetting that we make entertainment
What would you highlight about this second season?
“We tackle issues head-on and air conversations that take place behind closed doors, which normally no one says out loud for fear of being immediately sidelined.
-How did you experience the pandemic?
“He knocked me down and I think Reese, too. We had already filmed the first part of the second season when we were forced to shut down production. Later, we decided to incorporate Covid into the series. Organizing a production in the middle of a pandemic is not easy, we had endless meetings to organize the protocols. We had a hard time adjusting, but I think we managed to create an environment of normalcy.
—Are many things changing in our society and in Hollywood?
“There has never been a time of more change. We are humans trying to solve problems; we are capable of terrible things and other great things and none of us is only good or bad, we all know of something horrible that we have done and that we have done something good. This series deals very well with 'cancel culture' and how there is a human cost to exiling people and condemning them for something they did, judging them as if everyone else is perfect, when no one is.
“You, like your character, have suffered at the hands of the tabloids.
—Journalism has changed a lot with the emergence of social networks; now there is information for the sole purpose of confusion. The news is much more politicized and it is very difficult for the public to find the truth.
—How do the new generations live it?
—The generation gap with the news is very interesting, especially the way we explore it this season. Young people argue in black and white and that is wrong. The morning news used to be a safe place because, traditionally, it made us feel better, but now the world is imploding and even the morning offers culture war news. Everyone is looking for blood.
—The second season says that success and fame have a price.
“I agree with that one hundred percent. There is a cost, but it can also add value to you. The cost is that you can no longer do the things you used to do. You expose yourself as an artist and you are there for the public. Criticizing and judging has become a sport for people to decide how they feel about a person, and it changes from one week to the next week. What you've said is always taken out of context. Now there is a chance that you will be attacked from many more places.
This new season covers difficult ground.
—I don't think anything is difficult, it's just the truth. Prosecuting things like systemic racism within the media industry, homophobia, sexism, ageism, those are significant issues. We're in a cultural reckoning and people are really comfortable expressing themselves within this wild game. It seems morbid to break taboos, to say what should not be said, but life is not black and white.
"Do you like your alter ego, Alex Levy?"
“I love his ability to be professional one moment and then uncontrollably lose his shit the next. She is a human pendulum, always back and forth.
