Jan. 24, 2006

Featuring some of America's finest actresses, "Friends with Money" opened the 2006 Sundance Film Festival to a very warm reception. Nicole Holofcener's new drama stars Catherine Keener, Jennifer Aniston, Frances McDormand (who steals the show) and Joan Cusack as longtime friends trying to understand each others' foibles in Los Angeles. To complicate matters, most of the women are well off, whereas Olivia (Aniston) has been forced to work as a maid cleaning people's houses. Olivia's friends want to help her, but they are starting to wonder if she just doesn't fit in anymore. For Aniston, it's a mentality she could never consider.

"My friends are all still the same since I moved [to Los Angeles]," Aniston says sipping on both coffee and Diet Coke in a Park City, Utah, lounge. "There are some that are no longer my friends, but not because of money or anything. I didn't change ... but people around me did. I think they felt different around me. That I noticed more."

Keener feels differently saying, "As Cyndi Lauper said, 'Money changes everything.' And, I do believe that."

This topic was one of the inspirations for Holofcener's film because it mirrored relationships she saw among her own friends.

"I don't have a savings account. I mean, if I have one, it's empty. Maybe there is like $3,000 in it or something," Holofcener says. "But, my [rich] friends have a savings account [and then] they feel poor when their car breaks down. It's all relative."

Aniston's character is a welcome return to the otherwise untapped talent she exhibited in her previous indie project, "The Good Girl." Olivia is at a low point in her life, apprehensive of her future and unable to see how beautiful she is both on the inside and out. Surprisingly, Aniston could easily relate.

"I think that's how I actually see myself," Aniston says, laughing. "I have had moments of insecurity in my life. Just because you get put on top of a wedding cake, which is not your choice, or you've been given this image doesn't necessarily mean it's who you are or what you believe. That's why I love Olivia."

Most of all, Aniston is grateful Holofcener even thought of asking her to play the part, especially with all the baggage her "Friends" career has brought her.

Aniston says, "There are very few people that believe enough to see through that and say, 'I trust you as an actor and I know there is more there.' Thank god for her for giving me that. It would be awful to be stuck in a box, on a shelf somewhere. I love this. It's freedom for me as an actor."

Keener hasn't been as pigeon-holed in her career and is reaping the rewards with Oscar buzz for her performance as Harper Lee in "Capote." Is she enjoying all the extra kudos?

"When you are recognized by your peers or respectable people, then it does mean something," Keener says. "But, if you feel it's gotten by doing press or being political, then it sort of cheapens it a bit for me. I think it's wonderful that people are thrilled. And I'm thrilled when things happen, believe me."

"Friends with Money" will arrive in theaters later this spring.