Jennifer Aniston Finds Peace After Brad

Nov. 8, 2005 — -- It's been a rough year for Jennifer Aniston, but the former "Friends" star is moving forward after her very public breakup with Brad Pitt.

Aniston said that she and Pitt still talk. The couple's divorce was finalized on Oct. 2.

"Do I talk to Brad? Yes, we do, I do," the 36-year-old star told "Good Morning America" in an exclusive interview. "That's very peaceful. It's a really peaceful thing. That's another thing … people want it to be this war and this mean, terrible, shallow thing that's just playing like some soap opera or story line, and it's just not. So, yeah, pleasant, done."

Aniston has been busy with work and is currently promoting "Derailed," a sexy psychological thriller that hits theaters Nov. 11. In the film, Aniston sheds her "girl next door" image to play Lucinda, a manipulative and unhappy woman, who has an affair with a man she meets on a train, played by Clive Owen.

"I loved that," Aniston said of playing a different type of character. "It was a bit unnerving at first. You know, it's not … what I normally do. But I had a ball."

Aniston has another film coming out this holiday season. In the Rob Reiner-directed comedy, "Rumor Has It," Aniston plays Sarah Huttinger, a journalist who is convinced her family was the inspiration for the film "The Graduate."

Aniston recently finished filming "The Break Up," with Vince Vaughn, whom Aniston is rumored to be dating. She would not confirm a romance.

"Pictures are the pictures," she said. "He's my friend -- absolutely -- dear friend."

Aniston's personal life has been fodder for the tabloids ever since Pitt began filming the movie "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" with Angelina Jolie. Gossip swirled that Pitt and Jolie had become extremely close on the set. Those rumors seemed to be confirmed after Aniston and Pitt split and he and Jolie were photographed on a beach in Kenya with her young son, Maddox. Pitt and Jolie also appeared in a 60-page photo shoot of them as a married couple, which was masterminded by Pitt, in W magazine.

Despite the very public exposure of Pitt and Jolie's relationship, Aniston tells Sawyer that she's not angry at Pitt, her husband of 4½ years.

"How do you do this?" Sawyer asked. "I mean, for all the girls out there who want to know, how do you do this?"

"I will not let myself down like that," Aniston said. "I have a lot of amazing women, you know, women in my life who have been an example for me of what not to do. So, and I also know what feels good, and it doesn't feel good to harbor anger and resentment."

Yet out of the heartache, something positive has sprung: Aniston has begun to rekindle her relationship with her estranged mother, actress Nancy Dow.

"Yeah, it's been really nice," she said. "It's been really nice. It's crazy what, you know, your life kind of being turned upside down will lead you to. … For us it's … it was the time, and it was going to happen when it was supposed to happen. So this is good. It's baby steps."

Both Aniston and Pitt have moved out of the 14,000-square-foot house he designed -- a house with famously uncomfortable furniture. Aniston has settled into a home in Malibu with her new dog, Norm.

"I call it the 'doll house,'" Aniston said. "It's absolutely gorgeous, especially at this time of year. It's a crisp sky and, you know, if we wake up on a clear morning, and then I take little Norm out for a walk, have a little coffee on the deck."

For Aniston, she says it is all about feeling good about where and who she is right now.

"I'm gonna just do what feels good," she said. "I know I've said it and it sounds so corny, but I really am excited about the unknown, not knowing what … what's around the corner."

She said she is at ease with herself and her looks. As far as she can see, there is no botox -- which has become the rage in hollywood -- in her future. But she wouldn't rule it out.

"Let me say this: I have no idea if I won't be sticking a needle in my head either," Aniston, an avid yoga practitioner said. "I'm not saying I'm against it. I'm just saying people can do whatever they want to do."

Aniston said she has changed in the year since her split with Pitt.

"I'm a little, just more relaxed, a little more comfortable," she said. "I don't know if that's having a comfortable couch, I don't know if that's having a comfortable perspective. I don't know."

Watch "Good Morning America" on Wednesday for the rest of Sawyer's interview with Aniston.