‘Horrible Bosses 2’: Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman ‘Worried’ About Living Up to Original

— -- Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman are teaming up for “Horrible Bosses 2” and they confessed that they were initially worried about not being able to live up to the original.

“I’ll speak for myself. I was surprised that the first one turned out as well as it did … we wanted to be respectful to that film and also to the people who liked that and make sure we didn’t just phone in a sequel,” Bateman told ABC News’ Cameron Mathison.

“Horrible Bosses,” a comedy, centered around three men who hated their bosses and hatched a plan to kill them. In the follow-up, the same three men – played by Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day – hatch an extreme plan to regain control of their company.

Aniston, who reprises her role as sex-addicted dentist Julia Harris, agreed, saying the cast “worked really hard.”

Asked what it was like to return to the set, Aniston, who said she’s known Bateman for “20-plus years,” added that having that kind of “built-in friendship” with her co-stars made work easy.

Bateman agreed. “Not a lot of work going on,” he said.

New to the franchise are Chris Pine and Christoph Waltz, who play a father-son duo in the film.

Bateman said the cast was “pretty intimated” to be working with the newcomers, adding Pine and Waltz were funny because they didn’t try to be.

“They didn’t, like, talk loud and make faces like some people who don’t really do a lot of comedy sometimes will do,” he said.

Asked what it was like to play a character like Harris, Aniston replied: "It ... goes against every fiber of my being. Yes, it's completely fun. It's a dream job for any actress to play that monster."

As in “Horrible Bosses,” the language in the sequel does get raunchy.

Mathison asked Aniston whether it was hard for her to not smile as she delivered her lines.

She said the cast usually gets the “giggles” out during rehearsal.

As for how they keep a straight face during some of the scenes, Bateman says he distracts himself with “horrible thoughts,” such as bad things happening to his family or children.

But that doesn’t always work.

“Inevitably I’ll think about them getting hurt doing a comedic pratfall and then I’ll start laughing. And so, it doesn’t really work,” he said. “And then I’ll just end up pinching myself off-camera.”

“Horrible Bosses: 2” opens on Nov. 26.