The "Friends" star was interviewed by fellow actress Sandra Bullock about how they first met, the time they both dated the same actor, and Aniston's new series, "The Morning Show."
In a one-on-one conversation with Interview Magazine, Bullock noted Aniston's "way of pushing joy and positivity." Aniston credits her parents, who divorced when she was nine, for this mentality.
With her breakthrough role as Rachel Green on "Friends" back when it debuted in 1994, Jennifer Aniston has become a household name.
Her large following of loyal fans might not know everything about how she got her start and kept her cool throughout her years in the limelight.
Bullock asked Aniston, 51, "What is it that allows you to stay buoyant and keep from getting discouraged when things don't go the right way?"
Aniston, who celebrated her 51st birthday on the 11th of February, told Bullock that her compliment was the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to her before diving into the question.
She continued, "I think that it comes from growing up in a household that was destabilized and felt unsafe, watching adults being unkind to each other, and witnessing certain things about human behavior that made me think: 'I don't want to do that. I don't want to be that. I don't want to experience this feeling I'm having in my body right now. I don't want anyone else that I ever come in contact with ever to feel that.'"
Aniston's parents divorced when she was 9 years old. She has openly discussed her complicated relationship with her mom, from whom she was estranged for nearly a decade before reconciling.
Her father, John Aniston, has been a longtime cast member on the daytime soap opera "Days of our Lives" and her mother, Nancy Dow, starred in a number of TV shows and movies. Her mother died in 2016.
"So I guess I have my parents to thank. You can either be angry or be a martyr, or you can say, 'You've got lemons? Let's make lemonade.'"
Although Aniston had a love for the theater growing up in New York City, her parents were strict on her time in front of the television.
Fans got to know about her complex relationship with her mother during a 2018 interview with The Telegraph, cited by People, whilst promoting her Netflix movie "Dumplin.'"
According to Aniston on The Telegraph, "One of the reasons I really loved the mother-daughter aspect of ("Dumplin'") was because it was very similar in a way to what my mother, and our relationship, was. She was a model and she was all about presentation and what she looked like and what I looked like."
