Now, Jennifer Aniston showcases her funny side once again as a stripper-turned-pretend-mom in New Line Cinema’s envelope-pushing comedy “We’re the Millers.”
In the film, David Clark (Sudeikis) is a small-time pot dealer who, in order to pay a huge debt to his supplier, Brad (Ed Helms) must now become a big-time drug smuggler by bringing Brad’s latest shipment in from Mexico. Twisting the arms of his neighbors, cynical stripper Rose (Aniston) and wannabe customer Kenny (Will Poulter), as well as streetwise teen Casey (Emma Roberts), David devises a foolproof plan. One fake wife, two pretend kids and a huge, shiny RV later, the “Millers” are headed south of the border for a Fourth of July weekend that is sure to end with a bang.
Rose reluctantly accepts David’s proposal to be his “wife” only after she realizes she has no other choice. “She does not initially agree to sign on for this adventure because, despite being a stripper, she has morals, she has boundaries, and breaking the law is not something she is willing to do,” Aniston says. “But the rules are changing at work in a way that she doesn’t agree with, and she’s broke. And David’s offered to pay her a lot of money, so she feels she has no choice but to go along.”
“Rose is the kind of woman who’s had bad experiences with boyfriends, trusted the wrong people, been taken advantage of, and fell into stripping because she didn’t have a lot of options,” producer Chris Bender observes. “David’s offer is only slightly more palatable to her than what she might have to do if she doesn’t accept it, but it is more palatable…and, after all, it’s only for a weekend.”
Aniston and Sudeikis has worked together several times before, but this was the first time they would star opposite each other. “When we finished working on ‘Horrible Bosses,’” Aniston offers, “we both wanted to find something really great to do together again—and for the full length of the film, not just little snippets. Jason is so much fun and a friend, and the script was so funny, it was easy to say yes to this one.”
“One thing I don’t think any director can do is create chemistry,” director Rawson Marshall Thurber states. “I think you just cross your fingers and hope it’s there, and in this case we were incredibly fortunate. As early as the first week, we were filming a two-shot of Jen and Jason, and they were playing off of each other and it was so fun and easy and charming. They just clicked in the way I had hoped for.”
Aniston attests, “Jason’s improvisational skills are fantastic, just masterful. That led to some awesome volleying back and forth between the two of us.”
Thurber encouraged his cast to be creative, which Aniston thoroughly enjoyed. “I love working with a director who steps back and lets us do what we do and have as much fun with it as we wanted. Rawson really trusted us to do our jobs, and to find that balance between the grounded and screwball, and for me, playing the reality of the insanity was the most fun.”
Rated R-16 Without Cuts, New Line Cinema’s “We’re The Millers” opens across the Philippines on Sept. 18 and is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.
