HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Jennifer Aniston wishes the tabloids would slow down on their pregnancy rumors.
"Oh, my God, it's hysterical!" the 39-year-old actress tells Entertainment Weekly of a recent report that came on the heels of an alcohol-free dinner with boyfriend John Mayer. "You can't do anything without it going to some extreme. It's almost going to take away the fun from actually being able to say one day, 'I'm pregnant!' Everyone will be like, 'Yeah, right.' It's the boy who cried wolf. Stop stealing my thunder, motherf---ers!"
Aniston knows full well what it's like living in the public spotlight, having endured a very public split with her ex-husband Brad Pitt in early 2005. While she has yet to marry again, the former "Friends" star tells EW that she's content with the current direction of her life.
"I don't know if I'm just a late bloomer, but I feel like everything is just beginning," says Aniston, who turns 40 in February.
While she's looking forward to what lies ahead, Aniston is willing to admit that the past has proven difficult.
"Everyone projects their thoughts on you," she explains. "Everyone's got an opinion. I wish they didn't. I've gotten to the point where, if I focus on all of that stuff, I won't make a move, you know?"
After some more thought, Aniston compares her situation to the television alter-ego of one Miley Cyrus.
"There's this character — it's like my Hannah Montana," she says. "That's how I feel. There's my Hannah Montana and then there's me."
Aniston initially passed on her upcoming film, "Marley & Me," in which she stars alongside Owen Wilson. At first, the thought of appearing in a "dog" movie, as well as playing a mom, seemed unrealistic. Aniston eventually opened up to the idea and now says that babies might very well play a part in her own life soon.
"I feel like that's in my future and I'm on the verge of it in some way — or it's something I long for," she confesses to EW. "So it was great to sort of dip your toe in it."
Of course, such a pregnancy is sure to capture the tabloid world all over again, but Aniston seems to realize that adding another chapter to the Pitt storyline goes without saying.
"It's my history,'' she says. "It's my memory. That's all it is to me: something that happened, something that was really quite poignant and good in the long run."