Jennifer Aniston Shares How Reese Witherspoon Influenced Her Decision to Return to TV (Exclusive)

Aniston and Witherspoon sat down with ET's Brooke Anderson and opened up about their upcoming TV drama, 'The Morning Show.'

Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon are taking viewers inside the world of morning news television with their new drama series The Morning Show, which also marks Aniston's first return to TV as a series lead since the end of Friends in 2004.

Recently, the celebrated actresses sat down with ET's Brooke Anderson to dish on their hotly-anticipated new series, and Aniston gave Witherspoon nearly all the credit for drawing her back into the TV landscape.

"It was all your fault. It was, literally," Aniston joked to her friend and co-star, adding, "The whole package that was presented was ideal. You couldn't have dreamed something up better than this world."

Aniston also had no shortage of praise for Witherspoon as a producing partner and a scene partner, calling her, "literally one of the hardest working women ever."

"You went right in from Big Little Lies right into this, then right into [Little Fires Everywhere]," Aniston marveled to Witherspoon, referring to her hit HBO series and her upcoming Hulu series, co-starring Kerry Washington. "I mean it's head-spinning." 

While the pair forged a real friendship on set, their on-screen characters are remarkably adversarial.

In the series, Aniston stars as a respected veteran morning news anchor named Alex Levy, whose longtime co-anchor, Mitch Kessler (played by Steve Carell), is fired in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.

The spot is then filled by a younger, ambitious local TV journalist named Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon), who is thrust into the spotlight as she takes on the high-profile position. This also leads to tension between Alex and Bradley as each grapples with the changes in their lives and careers.

According to Witherspoon, their real-life friendship actually made some of the more vitriolic and combative scenes easier to shoot.

"It was actually great, because there's this level of trust," Witherspoon shared. "I'm like, 'Anything you need from me I'm here for you. There was a sense of, 'I got you,' and, 'Hey, let me know if there is anything else I can do different.'"

"It's hard to scream at her," Aniston admitted.

"You were good screaming at me though," Witherspoon joked.

"It hurt my feelings," Aniston replied. "Meaning, I hurt my feelings yelling at you."

The Morning Show is set to premiere Nov. 1 on Apple TV+.

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