To get thePartystarted, we invited Aniston, Miller, Vance, and Munn to relive the good times.
Someone brought salad; someone else brought Scotch.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Your agent sends you the script for something calledOffice Christmas Party.
Credit: ERIC RAY DAVIDSON for EW
Your first reaction is…?
T.J. MILLER:To sign up without reading it, because thats actually what I did.
JENNIFER ANISTON:[Laughs] You do have representatives, right?
MILLER:Actually, I have your representatives.
[CAA chief] Richard Lovett was like, Do you want to read the script?
and I was like, I dont think so.
The name alone tells me what it is.
Im going to be improvising the entire time.
Jens going to rewrite her and Olivias lines.
Olivias going to rewrite mine and Olivias lines.
No, I said, Its Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.
I heard the cast, I heard the concept.
OLIVIA MUNN:AfterThe NewsroomandX-Men: Apocalypse, I was really excited to go back into a comedy…. [Pointing to Miller] This guys got what is that, whiskey?
MILLER:Im drinking a Scotch and soda.
Courtneys having cucumbers that Jen brought.
ANISTON:[Motions to salad and cucumbers] This is for the table.
MILLER:Thats a perfect example of why Jennifer Aniston is Americas sweetheart.
ANISTON:Would you rather have almond butter?
COURTNEY B. VANCE:I didnt read the script at first.
I met with Will and Josh.
ANISTON:[To Vance] We all just saw you as Johnnie Cochran.
MILLER:He just won a goddamn Emmy, all right?
ANISTON:[To Vance] I just loved what you did in that.
VANCE:You know, I didnt know what I was doing.
But thats another story.
ANISTON:Ive known about this movie for so many years.
Will has become one of my best friends sinceThe Switch.
So I always was joking throughout the years, There better be a part for me in there.
It was supposed to be just a small little thing.
VANCE:I didnt know that.
MUNN:And then they go, Wait, Jennifer Aniston is willing to be in the movie?
What if we call it a cameo and just extend it and extend it?
Day 15, she thought it was a cameo still.
ANISTON:But it was great.
And it was all about having fun.
We just really wanted to have a good time and make a fun comedy.
MILLER:And we didnt.
But that was the intention.
[All laugh.]
Courtney, you hadnt done much comedy.
Was there a desire on your part to throw everyone a curve and try a different genre?
VANCE:As actors, we all love challenges.
ANISTON:Guess what?
I dont thinktheydid either.
[All laugh.]
That was the fun of it what was coming out of the moment, what things were spontaneously happening.
[Points at Vance] What a team player, though.
MUNN:[To Vance] They threw a lot at you.
You had to go from the really buttoned-up guy to have this secret and then explode.
And it was awesome.
VANCE:I loved my scene when the cocaine hit me.
[All laugh.]
ANISTON:Oh my God.
You just went off the rails.
There is a ton of cocaine in this film most of it blown into your face, Courtney.
How did you get yourself that jacked-up?
Can you give us three tips to playing high on blow?
VANCE:Just jump.
Go.Blow…. Will and Josh said, Justmore.
They said they wanted high octane and I
ANISTON:Gave em high octane.
MILLER:You wentsuperhigh octane.
I saw the blow but I thought it would be a gradual thing.
I forgot that it was like [freaking out] EEEE!!!
It was a switch that he would flip.
Here, say this one.
MUNN:You want to be prepared and have your lines.
Like, how do you use it?
Its not about, You gotta party, do coke, buy a gun.
Its more: The next day, all will be forgiven, so everybody goes for it that evening.
And that was the feeling, actually, on the set.
T.J., you drool on Jen and wrestle with her.
How quickly did that sibling chemistry form?
And what does it feel like to be inside of an Aniston headlock?
MILLER:Its the softest, sweetest headlock a person being wrestled could ever hope to be in.
[All laugh.]
ANISTON:Thats a disappointment.
MILLER:When she slaps you, though, you know that she means it.
MILLER:But at the end of the day, her values were in the right place.
Thats a great fing comparison.
This isIts a Wonderful Lifecrossed withFerris Buellers Day Off.
With a hard R… We had brother-sister chemistry.
[Aniston laughs.]
I heard that you were very sweet, but I thought, How do we establish this chemistry?
I think she naturally is kind of a big sister to all that are in the room.
Jen, how did that chemisty gel for you?
ANISTON:I was a fan fromSilicon Valley, so I knew of him.
MILLER:Wait til you see this year.
ANISTON:It was incredible.
I think we already knew we were doing it at that point.
You came by after you had done this very committed bit on stage.
[to EW] It was one of those Hey!
Hes quite a shvitzer.
MILLER:Well, I was carrying a four-person puppet rig.
ANISTON:But I felt like we knew each other.
In that one little moment I felt like, Hes the sweetest guy.
ANISTON:Three hundred and fifty extras.
Not all of them.
Jen, you dont look like youre acting when you first walk into the party the shock looks real.
VANCE:Was that the first day?
ANISTON:Yeah, that was kind of intense.
Its a lot, walking into a lot of extras.
Yeah, its overwhelming.
I dont like crowds to begin with.
Im not great at concerts.
Never have been since I was a kid.
MUNN:Me neither.
ANISTON:I dont know what that was.
What was that about?
When did that start?
MUNN:[I feel like] I cant escape.
ANISTON:And being trampled.
MILLER:Stompled, I like.
ANISTON:Did I make that up?
I go, Yeah?
and he was like, What was it like working onThe Daily Show?
Because I just really love Jon Stewart.
Whats he really like?
And Im like, Um
MILLER:Thats your d, sir!
The extras made the movie… And there were a lot of girls that were like, Okayyyy… [All laugh.]
So, that was fun chemistry to be around.
The HangoverandDeadpoolrecently took the R rating to new levels of outrageousness.
Is there pressure these days
MILLER:To work with Ryan Reynolds again?
Yes, theres a lot of pressure.
And to up the ante when youre doing an R comedy?
The harder the R, the better?
MUNN:I dont think theres a pressure to do it.
Its, How do you match up with the quality of those others?
VANCE:Theres a fine line.
You want to speak to the entire audience.
MILLER:And also [do] unique versions.
VANCE:Here it is: a $100 million opening.
MILLER:Id like to get Courtney B. Vance a second single-letter initial for his middle name.
And then Jennifer Aniston…I will get her a smartwater bottle full of vodka.
MUNN:Ill get them all signed posters ofZootopiabecause that was a big hit.
And I know Jason [Bateman].
I think I can get him to sign a couple posters for me.
ANISTON:Im trying to think…
Honestly, were trying to make preserves from our garden.
From our fruit trees.
MILLER:You are so weird.
A version of this story appeared in Entertainment Weekly #1443, availablehere.
