Jennifer Aniston will star in a drama for the first time since ‘Cake’

This promises to be compelling viewing...

Words - Dasha Fayvinova

Ordinarily, a new Jennifer Aniston movie means a comedy blockbuster is coming your way. But not this time. This time, Jennifer Aniston will star in a drama for the first time since Cake in 2014. Since her last dramatic role earned her Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations, it’s safe to say she can totally pull this new role off in The Yellow Birds.

Equally important is the fact that Jennifer Aniston is also an executive producer of this film. The project was brought to her by the team that produced Cake. Apparently, the team loved the novel The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers so much that they could not stop talking about it. They purchase the rights relatively quickly and Aniston signed on to play one of the two mother characters. We love seeing Jennifer’s more serious side!

By and large, The Yellow Birds is a war movie. But Aniston assured audiences that it isn’t as simple as that label. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, she said:

'War movies aren’t usually my thing; I find them very hard to watch, [but] the way this script read, and the vision that Alex [Moors, the director] had — it was really connecting into the humanity of the soldiers; the parents that are left behind waiting, counting the minutes; the loss of innocence.'

The story focuses on two young soldiers in Iraq, played by Alden Ehrenreich (aka young Han Solo) and Tye Sheridan. When only one of them (Ehrenreich) comes back from war, Aniston’s character becomes troubled over the fate of her son (Sheridan) and looks for answers. Ehrenreich’s character deals with the disappearance of his friend as well. Additionally, Toni Collette plays Ehrenreich’s character’s mother.

Aniston says she has loved working on this project and being a producer.

'I’ve loved being a part of finding a script, finding the book, finding the team, surrounding it with all the great creatives that are going to make it into a film.'

The Yellow Birds premiered at Sundance this weekend, though the rest of us will have to wait to see it later in the year.

From the editors of Hello Giggles