If ever there was any doubt that Jennifer Aniston would never escape the squeaky clean persona of Rachel from Friends, her role as Lucinda in the Weinstein Company’s first release Derailed should finally put an end to the image that has defined her in the public’s mind. Aniston takes on the part of a seductive married mother and wife who meets Charles Schine (Clive Owen), an advertising executive who is also married with children on a morning commuter train. The attraction is immediate. Before long, they find themselves together in a hotel room. But their tryst becomes a violent and macabre nightmare when a stranger (French actor Vincent Cassel) breaks into their room and holds them both at gunpoint. “She is just a normal woman,’ says Aniston, “ who is at a very mundane phase in her life and she meets this very intriguing lovely man on the train. She succumbs to a temptation and they both have to sort of figure out a way to get out of the horrible consequences that they have created for themselves.”

Aniston dismisses the label of America’s Sweetheart as a tag regularly imposed upon a lot of actresses and shies away from the notion that she took this role in order to debunk her breezy wholesome image: “I don’t really pay much attention to that and I am not trying to shake anything. I am just following my instincts and doing work that is coming to me and am grateful for it. I am just trying to do my job as best that I can.” But she does not deny that there was a point when she hesitated about the part, showing an awareness of the weight of the part: “There was definitely a moment of: ‘Oh, Gosh. I don’t know if I can pull this off.’” But she quickly shrugged off any misgivings when encouraged and guided by Swedish director, Mikael Hafstrom (Evil, a 2004 Academy Award nominee). “And thank God for directors like him… For me this was such unchartered territory that I felt trust in everything he said…There was never a debate. There was never questioning. And also having seen Evil and meeting with him and talking to him about his take on how he wanted (me) to play this, it was just unbelievably intriguing - because it is a very uncomfortable reality.”

The reality of filming a psychologically and physically taxing rape scene might have been torturous but, claims Aniston, it was much more difficult to watch than to shoot. Filming of the scene took place over the period of a week but the rehearsed choreography and technicalities of the set up helped block out the intensity of the scene: “It is not difficult at all – because it was so choreographed, so well thought out. There were stunt men around me. It was very controlled. And with Vincent (Cassel), I was in such good hands. He’s a pro and he is in such control of his body. Something that is very important – not to be reckless as an actor, especially in a scene like that. So I felt so safe.”

It seems that the greater burden will lie with audiences to obliterate their preconceived idea of Aniston as the eternal ‘Good Girl’: “There is a lot of discomfort watching this movie. Put into the wrong hands it could easily have gone that high-concept glossy slick thriller and it just is not. It is far from it.”

Aniston notes that Derailed “came along at a good time”, a time when the media frenzy surrounding her much publicized split from Brad Pitt had already exploded. And she has tried not to let the firestorm of press affect her: “I don’t look at that stuff. I just don’t pay attention to it. It’s toxic.” Asked at the New York press conference for the film if she could offer any advice for anyone experiencing a similar personal derailment, she unflinchingly rebutted with: “First of all, I am not the poster child for how to do anything. It was my first time at this particular picnic. So I have a family of great support, great friends. This is nothing out of the ordinary. People walk through this stuff all the time.” But notes that solace is to be found in her work: “Yeah, it is good to have something, a creative outlet. I love having work to go to.”

Aniston has a string of movies following on the heels of Derailed (including Rumor Has It, The Break Up and Friends with Money) but plans – at least for now - to take a breather. “As far as what I am doing next, nothing is definite I am probably going to take some time off - unless of course something really wonderful comes along.”