Oscar buzz for Jennifer Aniston

Actress Jennifer Aniston stars in the film Cake. Photo / Getty Images

Jennifer Aniston's makeup free turn in Cake might just hit the sweet spot with Oscar voters.

Aniston, 45, looks the very opposite of fashionable Rachel Green in a new clip from Cake (via People).

With no makeup and sporting facial scars and a vulnerable, pained expression, Aniston stars as car-crash survivor struggling with chronic pain.

"I am in a lot of pain," she explains to someone trying to help her.

"You may know, but sometimes I suspect that you think that I'm this uncooperative old botch who's just making all of this up."

Jennifer Aniston in a scene from Cake.

z

In the film, Aniston has a romance with a widower played by Sam Worthington and Anna Kendrick also stars.

Awards buzz has been circulating around Aniston since the flick premiered at Toronto International Film Festival this year.

She's also said she found it liberating to sit in a makeup chair and only have scars painted on her face rather than layers of foundation, powder, mascara and lipstick.

Jennifer Aniston in a scene from Cake.

Aniston's performance and transformation in Cake may be too tempting for Academy Awards voters - no doubt the Friends actress is hoping they will eat it up.

ACTRESSES WHO HAVE DITCHED THE GLAM AND WON ACCLAIM

• Halle Berry went makeup free to play a Southern widower who falls for a prison guard in Monster's Ball (2002)

• Charlize Theron shaved off her eyebrows, put on weight and fake teeth to transform into serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster (2004)

• Hilary Swank gained around eight kilos of muscle to star as an underdog boxer in Million Dollar Baby (2005)

• Nicole Kidman sported a prosthetic nose as Virginia Woolf in The Hours (2002).

-AAP