Jennifer Aniston on health, her latest brand partnership and ‘no uterus, no opinion’

Jennifer Aniston doesn’t just represent any brand, according to Tracey Halama, CEO of Vital Proteins, which is why the executive was so thrilled for the “Friends” star to join her team as chief creative officer.

The partnership began officially in late 2020, but Aniston has been a Vital Proteins user for much longer, since her doctor recommended the collagen product in 2015, before it started appearing in viral influencer posts across social media. “She's been using our product for longer than most people had even heard of Vital Proteins,” Halama said of the natural partnership. “Then you pair that with—fundamentally, I don't think there's anyone that represents healthy aging better than Jen.”

Aniston isn’t just a face for the company. She’s taken on roles behind the scenes, designing its new line of Vital Proteins & Jennifer Aniston Bars, a collection of nutritional bars packed with protein and collagen—plus a few of Aniston’s favorite, more unusual ingredients, such as Lion’s Mane and Reishi mushrooms with benefits for focus and energy.

To launch the bars, which feature flavors of peanut butter fudge, cold brew coffee and dark chocolate coconut (“The fun part is getting to taste them,” said Aniston), Vital Proteins recruited an all-star crew to create “Every Moment is Vital,” a video montage of Aniston examining holistic wellness. Directed by “La La Land” creator Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz, plus celebrity photographer Cass Bird, the spot is like a visual scrapbook of an idyllic day in Aniston’s life told through textured and varied film styles.

“What keeps me vital?” Aniston asks in voiceover. Rather than hitting viewers over the head with the collagen bars, the answers are more reflective: “meaningful work,” “play,” “silent mode” and, of course, “friends.” Throughout the film, which culminates in the tagline “every moment is vital,” the actress showcases her ideal daily routine and never-before-seen personal photographs.

“It's so beautiful. It's sort of the anti-ad, as I love to call it,” Aniston told Ad Age. “It feels like you're a voyeur on this beautiful day in the life and shot with all these different film formats just made it look beautiful.”

Aniston recalled the two-day shoot being so easy and fun, featuring lots of yoga, drinking shakes and playing with her dogs. “I felt like I was at home, just with like 65 other people and cameras running,” joked Aniston. “I don't know how people that live with a camera on them all day long can actually do it.”

The campaign, according to Halama, is a perfect example of Vital Proteins’ evolution, starting as a post-run supplement, but becoming more inclusive as the pandemic has changed the definition of wellness to include mental and physical health.

“How can we be a little bit more woke as a company?” she asked. “We're not just saying, ‘The only way to be a good Vital Proteins consumer is to look and feel a certain way,’ so how can we really be a much more wellness-centric brand? And that wellness-centric is really giving you pause and celebrating all the little moments that contribute to your overall health and wellness.”

Ad Age called Jennifer Aniston to get her thoughts on wellness, her role as CCO of Vital Proteins and the “Friends” clip that has become a champion of pro-choice discourse on social media.

What is your decision-making process on what brands you want to represent?

Well, it's actually kind of easy. And it always seems to happen pretty organically, which is great. No matter what it is that I partner with, it's usually because it's something that I've been using myself. And it's not something that you have to figure out a way to wrap your head around, like Vital Proteins I've been using since 2015 and I truly just, I love it. I was actually so excited when they approached me to say would you get would you want to become part of the team? And I said yeah. No brainer. Easy. All the other brands that I get to partner with, it comes so easily to everybody because we're all in agreement on what it is we're representing.

With Vital Proteins, you have taken on a little bit more than just a typical brand partnership—the title of CCO. Tell me more about the work that goes into crafting both the new bars and the campaign.

I know that is a fancy title, isn't it? CCO of Vital Proteins. I mean, it basically just means I get to be involved in how the campaign looks, how it's shot, who comes on board as a director and photographer. And as far as the products, bars wasn't their specialty, so it was really fun to be able to play with the products that they had and figure out—basically, I made a shake that I loved with their chocolate collagen peptides and I would put all these good, yummy, nutritious ingredients in it. And they basically just created the bar out of those ingredients and then expanded on them. Of course, we're cooking up other ones in our heads for the future, but the fun part is getting to taste them and going through the trials and saying, ‘Okay, this is too much of this, too little of that.’ And then we hit it—the nail on the head.

What is your philosophy on bringing these new ingredients to a wider audience and getting people in on this health and wellness journey with you?

Honestly, it's not necessarily at the top of people's charts. Unfortunately, it's not people’s go-to: I've got to keep my health and wellness in check so I can live a long, thriving, healthy life. We just kind of plug along and hopefully we'll just make it there somehow. So, anytime you can get healthy ingredients into your body in any way, shape or form, I think that's wonderful. And the bars are so easy because you could throw them in your bag. It's just very travel-friendly so you can maintain wellness as best you can even if you're traveling or on the go, which I am. Every day is different, especially if you're on a movie schedule— it's hard to have a consistent regime, so every little bit counts.

Can you speak on your wellness journey and any advice you might have on tapping into that healthy and balanced lifestyle?

It's very hard. I love routine. I love it. I love a schedule. You wake up, you have your coffee, meditate, do your workout. If your call times are all over the place, it's hard sometimes to be able to squeeze that in, but it is so important, even if it's just giving yourself that extra 20 minutes, extra half hour in the morning. And it has evolved, thankfully. When we're younger, when we're kids, we take our vitality for granted because our energy is endless. I watched my father and my mom, the older generations as they get older—they didn't pay attention to their diet. They didn't exercise. They were just like: get through the day. They prided themselves on sleeping three hours, I don't need anything. It all eventually catches up to you. So, luckily, that awareness came to me early on, the importance of diet and exercise, the importance of sleep, the importance of water. We're useless in our daily life if our body is not thriving and I think that's something people put at the end of their checklist, but I think it should be at the top of your checklist because otherwise everything else sort of falls by the wayside and it's diminishing returns.

And if you have a particularly busy day and your body's just screaming for a little self-care, what is the one thing that is your go-to get myself feeling better thing?

Meditation, coffee, collagen—you can take that wherever you go.

The “no uterus, no opinion” clip from “Friends” continues to come up on social media in conversations about reproductive rights. What are your thoughts on seeing that clip resurface as this discourse continues?

Of course, in any way that we can be a part of this moment, if that's a clip that is getting traction and resurfacing, I'm thrilled to be a part of it in any way, shape, or form. I mean, this just can't be happening. I think everyone's standing here in shock and awe that we're moving backwards like this, but it just won't happen. It can't happen. It's just, it's unfathomable. Who knew when we were doing it that it would be that in 20 years, but I'm so grateful. I'm grateful for it.