It’s scary when you realize we’re all living in a sci-fi movie — and the one we’re watching right now stars Jennifer Aniston; she just might not know it yet. A video has gone viral on Facebook showing Aniston chatting animatedly to Nicole Kidman about how she keeps her “bikini body” in her fifties, but guess what? It’s one hundred percent fake.
The video, hosted on a wellness-focused Facebook page, seemingly shows Aniston, 55, talking about how she’s changed up her health and fitness routine to burn more fat — and in doing so “she” spouts some seriously questionable science about the impact of carbs and cardio on her body as she gets older.
The good news is, none of this actually happened! The terrifying news is, an awful lot of people will believe it did. Eagle-eyed fans of Aniston will know that, in the original clip, she was simply chatting about the acting process with fellow Hollywood favorites like Kidman, Naomi Watts and Sofia Vergara in a Hollywood Reporter roundtable from a few months back. However, deepfake scammers have removed the original audio and dubbed over it with an AI Aniston-alike extolling the virtues of collagen supplements and crediting them for “why my body doesn’t hold onto fat.” The video — which has now been taken down, but not before racking up around a million views — exists, unsurprisingly, to sell supplements, and the voice sounds exactly like the Aniston we know and love. But, trust Us, it’s not real!
Thankfully, British fitness influencer Ben Carpenter was alerted to the deepfake by a concerned follower who was worried that Aniston was spreading false information about the power of collagen. Carpenter, who often debunks questionable social media wellness content, has done his best to put things right by explaining how the scam played out. Unfortunately, though, for the casual Facebook browser, the damage is done, and this might well look legit. After all, Aniston famously has a great body, why shouldn’t she share her “secrets”?
The fact is, generally in 2024, big stars like Aniston don’t really talk about how they “get” their bodies, since we’ve all wised up to the fact that it’s usually down to a blessed combination of great genes, pots of money and the pressure of doing a job that demands flawlessness and extreme discipline. And everyone knows that a whole generation of women have grown up with a terrible body image, largely thanks to the skinny celebrity culture of the ‘90s and ‘00s. Unfortunately, those very same women are likely to be the ones targeted with content like this on Facebook, and they happen to love Jen. In the words of the concerned follower who flagged the deepfake, “she is revered by women of my generation who are going through perimenopause.” Us Weekly has reached out to Aniston’s rep for comment.
It’s true: every group chat featuring women of a certain age features both endless Friends gifs and lots of debate about the merits of collagen supplements when it comes to anti-ageing — but while Aniston has talked about collagen’s benefits for her skin and joints as promotion for Vital Proteins where she serves as Chief Creative Officer, the company emphasizes that it is “not in the ‘weight loss’ business. Rather, we provide a range of collagen powders to help boost your daily routine.” Plus, after 30 years as one of the most talked-about and gazed-at actresses in the world, Aniston knows there are some topics it’s safer not to touch, let alone on camera with multiple fellow A-listers.
The robots disagree, though — they know there is serious cash in making it look like celebrities are sharing their “bikini body” secrets, and it’s pretty scary business. We love the fact that social media serves us up with a ton of juicy content from the stars we love — but this is a lesson in always questioning where that content has really come from before you hit “add to cart”.
