Moving Forward

Just be Nice

"Mommy I wanna go too!!" Ava jumps up and down, crying about Brad and I going to the premiere "Please?!?"

"Honey I wish you could, but this is a big person movie." I sit on the floor, putting her on my lap "You wouldn't like it."

She continues to cry into my chest for a while, tiring herself out.

"Do you wanna help me with my hair?" I eventually ask, knowing we'll be late if I don't hurry "You can brush it for me."

"Okay!" She happily agrees. 

I let her brush it for a while before sending her out to Brad to play so I can finish.

"Hey, George just got here.  We can leave whenever you're ready." Brad walks in, zippering up my dress, knowing I would ask "I love that color on you."

"Thank you, I love it too."

We quickly say goodbye to the girls and run out to the car that's waiting for us.  Brad can tell that I'm a little uncomfortable, so he reassures me that after this night everything is over.  I no longer need to feel like I'm constantly being judged by someone who hardly knows me.

"Just stay close and don't listen to what they say.  Do what we always do and it won't feel any different." He says as we walk through the crowd "Treat it like any other premiere.  It'll be over soon." 

"I know.  Just remember I'm only doing this for you.  You better make up for it."

"I will." He leans in to kiss me "Trust me, I will."

We hold hands, walking down the carpet, smiling at all the cameras.  People yell out to us, asking ridiculous questions, trying to get us to answer.

"Let's just do an interview or two, and then you can go inside and skip the rest." Brad whispers, pulling me towards some reporters.  I happily follow, wanting to get away from this.

"How does it feel to have a night out together?  You two have to be really busy with a new baby and all the promotion."

"It's nice to have a little break." I say, looking to Brad "I'm excited to see all his hard work on screen too."

"Brad, does it make you nervous that she's going to be watching?  Do you ever feel while you're filming that you need to do your best to impress her?"

"I always try to do my best while filming, otherwise I wouldn't be where I am today, but knowing she's going to see it is definitely an encouragement.  Her and the girls are my biggest fans, so I always try to think of them while filming."

"What was it like to film with and work alongside Angelina?"

"It was great, she's a great actress.  The only thing I wasn't thrilled about with this movie was that I was away from my family often."

We move onto the next interview, getting interrupted by Angelina's arrival in the process.

"Hey," She walks up to us smiling.  I tell her she looks nice, and stand to the side so that her and Brad can get some pictures together.  They quickly do an interview together as well before Brad comes back to me.

"See, it wasn't so bad.  You don't have to be around her too much longer." He pulls me over to the next interview.

"Jennifer, how was filming the finale of Friends?  Do you think it was more emotional than you thought it would be?"

"I think it was an amazing experience, and one of the hardest that I've been through.  We all knew it would be emotional, but I don't think any of us realized how hard it would be until it happened.  Having Brad and the rest of the cast to lean on really helped me."

"Brad you've said before that you don't think you'll ever film a movie that's filmed in segments like this one again.  Why's that?"

"I really don't like being away from my family to begin with, but with this one it felt like as soon as I got back to them and Avalynn was happy to see me, I had to leave again and see her get upset and know I was causing it.  I think being away for a longer amount of time at once, and then being home for good would be much easier on all of us."

"What would you say is the hardest role you've ever prepped for?  Career and personal wise."

"Well, in my personal life, it would obviously be parenting.  When we found out Jen was pregnant with Avalynn it was a huge shock and I knew I was good with all our nieces and nephews, but I had to really grow up over those 9 months and figure out how to not mess her up too much." He looks at me laughing, before moving on.

"Career wise, I would have to say Troy.  I'm not normally into all the workout and healthy eating that I had to do for that movie, so it definitely took dedication.  Especially with a 2 year old following me around eating cookies."

"What about you, Jennifer?  What have your hardest roles been?"

"Obviously parenting has been the most challenging and as prepared are we thought we were, we really weren't.  It's like you just get thrown into it, so we take it one day at a time and hope."

I think for a little, trying to decide on the other part.

"Friends was hard in the obvious commitment way, and having to be away from my family, but I didn't have to prepare much to play Rachel because the writers really used me as a base and then exaggerated.  Physically, my hardest role was The Good Girl."

We finally walk in to watch the movie, sitting in our designated seats, talking to some of the cast.  I sit next to Brad away from all of them, listening as Angelina talks to him about how she's glad her boyfriend didn't interrupt filming because she thinks that helped make her better.  I know she's saying it to take a jab at the fact that Ava and I would visit him, or he would come home to see us.

"I think for me, getting to see my family helped.  They didn't interrupt me, they just pushed me to work harder for them."