Aniston explores her dark side in new movie

Jennifer Aniston is moving away from her glamorous TV image in a new film.

The Friends star plays a dejected, small-town woman who turns to adultery to lash out at the people in her boring life.

She and husband Brad Pitt attended the premiere of The Good Girl in Hollywood.

Co-star Jake Gyllenhaal was also at the screening.

"I have always performed more on the comedic side because it was a safe haven, and it made me feel good," Aniston said.

"So it was a challenge for me to explore that side of myself, which we all have, which is sometimes sad, and dark and depressed."

Her frustrated character, Justine, starts an affair with a younger colleague (Gyllenhaal) at the Retail Rodeo discount store and is later blackmailed into having sex with a sleazy acquaintance who discovers her secret.

Justine's life comes apart as she learns she is pregnant - and her oblivious, dope-smoking husband (John C Reilly) discovers he is sterile.

Tim Blake Nelson, who plays a lecherous house painter, said: "It takes a lot of courage for Jennifer, who has been so successful creating an image of herself in our culture, to dispense with all that and perform this role in a way that considered the character first and 'Jennifer Aniston: movie star' second."