Jennifer Aniston closed out the Toronto International Film Festival with the premiere of her upcoming film Life of Crime on Saturday.

Life of Crime, directed by Daniel Schechter, is based on the crime novel The Switch by Elmore Leonard and co-stars John Hawkes, Tim Robbins, Yaslin Bey (aka Mos Def), Will Forte and Isla Fisher.

The dramedy centers on Ordell Robbie (Def) and Louis Gara (Hawkes), two ex-cons in 1970s Detroit, and acts as a prequel to Quentin Tarantino’s 1997 film Jackie Brown. Ordell and Louis decide to kidnap Aniston’s character, Mickey Dawson and plan to extort $1 million for her ransom from her estranged husband, Frank (Tim Robbins).

“For me, it was just such a different role than usually does come to me. So I was thrilled and honored and it was riveting and wonderfully written,” Aniston said at a press conference for the film.

Aniston, who stunned at the premiere in a strapless Vivienne Westwood dress on the arm of fiancé Justin Theroux, is definitely shifting away from her goofy, comedic persona with Life of Crime. The film features a scene in which her character fights off an attempted rape by one of the kidnapers, Richard (Mark Boone Junior), and Aniston reportedly put a lot of effort into making her performance as authentic as possible.

“Being the level of actor that she is you would imagine that she would be closed off, but she was actually very giving and brave in the scene. She wanted to get it right,” a source close to the production of Life of Crime told Us Weekly.

Speaking at the Festival on what she looks for in a script, Aniston told reporters that she wants to focus on surrounding herself with good, positive co-workers: “I just want to do really good material and work with really wonderful people who are committed to doing just that. I’m not interested in egos – exhausting time-wasters.”

Life of Crime will be released by Roadside and Lionsgate, but no official release date has been announced.

Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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