Jennifer Aniston And Reese Witherspoon On ‘The Morning Show’ Season 4

Reese Witherspoon as Bradley Jackson and Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy for “The Morning Show” Season 4.

Apple TV+

Ever since premiering its very first episode in November 2019, the Apple TV+ drama series The Morning Show has captured the hearts and minds of audiences everywhere. Yes, it stars Hollywood trailblazers Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon – but as this story surrounding the inner-workings of a national morning television show has evolved over the years, the gripping narratives continue to be based around real world headlines, alongside a rather incomparable ensemble cast of talented actors – making The Morning Show still one of the best series on television today.

From tackling relatable storylines around the “Me too” movement to the Covid-19 pandemic in earlier seasons, viewers will next get to experience the highs-and-lows surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) in season four, with new episodes now streaming weekly, as celebrated journalists Alex Levy (Aniston) and Bradley Jackson (Witherspoon) strive to navigate corporate cover-ups and cut-throat business deals, while questioning their own moral compass and why they got in this fight to make a difference in the first place.

I sat down with Witherspoon and Aniston, knowing that The Morning Show story continues to be fiction – yet addressing real hot topics facing our world lately, which goes beyond just entertainment value alone. So, what have they enjoyed most about working alongside their The Morning Show creative team in putting out these episodic stories that actually matter?

Aniston said, “Well, just that – that these stories matter and being able to shine light on issues that are taking place in the real world in real time, and sort of getting to take a peek behind the curtain of what people – how these human beings are keeping up with everything as it happens. We feel really lucky to be a part of it – and also, that we have a team of writers that somehow are able to collect the information that is happening at warp speed. The world is changing and they’re constantly keeping up with everything, and sometimes even predicting things. When season three started, when there was a rocket ship and a billionaire involved, we sort of thought – Well, that’s far-fetched. That’ll never happen – and then the next thing you know, there are rocket ships and billionaires. So it’s real, it’s fascinating and our writers are exceptional.”

Joining these ladies on this fourth season include Marion Cotillard as a new executive at the fictional UBN media empire and Jeremy Irons as Alex’s less-than-supportive father. Aniston and Witherspoon not only remain two of the stars of this Apple TV+ series, but they are also executive producers on this Media Res production. So, I was curious how this show has at all altered their overall outlook and expectations when working on other productions, after knowing and seeing what is in fact possible from their experiences in and around this production.

Witherspoon said, “Well, this production has been a dream come true because getting to work with Jen from the very beginning. We had known each other for so long, but we got to architect the way – not just what happened in the show, but behind-the-scenes. We got to hire a lot of the crew. We got to decide how we want people to feel about work – design the hours and the days. So, there was a lot of conscious, intentional work to create a great work environment. We’ve learned a lot over the years of being on different sets and how we wanted to do things and how we didn’t want to do things. So, I definitely take a lot of the best practices from this show onto other shows that we produce, and we’ve built a family. We just did a [prequel] show about Elle Woods [titled Elle] and half of The Morning Show crew is on it. I walk on-set and it’s a real feeling of family.”

Concluding my conversation with Witherspoon and Aniston, I left this on-screen duo with my original and signature interview question – Jen and Reese, if you could speak to Alex Levy and Bradley Jackson after embodying them over these four seasons, knowing their life and their story, what would you say to them, if only you could? What do you feel they need to hear from you, from the outside in?

Witherspoon replied with a laugh and a smile, “That’s a good question.”

Aniston quickly said with Alex in mind, “Oh, go on a vacation. Go to therapy.”

Witherspoon added: “I always tell Bradley to get it together. Just relax, calm down and be okay with some normal life.”

“Can’t save everyone,” Aniston said.