The inspiration for a generation of women’s hairstyles, Jennifer Aniston achieved international fame as Rachel in the 1990’s sit-com phenomenon Friends. Since then, she has carved a career in movies, winning acclaim for her performance in The Good Girl and delighting Box Office patrons with films such as The Break Up and Along Came Polly. Today, she’s talking to us about Marley & Me, the comedy about a naughty dog based on Josh Grogan’s novel.

Entertainmentwise: You worked with several animal actors on the film. Did they prove to be tough co-stars?

Jennifer Aniston: Not one bit! It wasn’t as bad as people think, actually. It was quite enjoyable, in fact. And because Marley was supposed to be such an out of control dog, he really could do no wrong- the worse he was, the ‘better’ he was, kind of. The only hard part was the babies. Obviously the have to cry in certain scenes, but it was hard to encourage them to wail, so we gave them to Owen (Wilson). He seemed to have a knack for bringing the emotion out of these children!

EW: Were you an animal lover growing up?

JA: Our first dog, Dimitri, didn’t like me too much. I was so little I thought it was something I could play with and ride, then he bit me and I thought ‘oh I’ll never be a dog person’, but now I have two!

EW: It’s very much an escapist, feel-good movie. Is there more call for that in these recession-hit times?

JA: Yeah, The fact that it did so well (in the US) at a time when there were so many big movies out- more high concept, beautiful movies- it was a sign of what people were really hungry for, which was a very simple story of this family and the journey you go on with them over 15 years of their life. Because it’s so accessible, people were ready to feel that- to laugh really hard, cry really hard, to feel that emotion.

EW: Finally, what was it like eating dog biscuits after losing a bet on German TV?

JA: I never lost the bet, Owen lost the bet! I said ‘it’s a chocolate-chip cookie I bet, they’re not going to give us a real dog biscuit!’, but it was a real dog biscuit! It was horrible, it’s horrible what we feed our pets, and they look forward to it!

Marley & Me is released on 13th March. 

See Jen in Marley & Me below