As someone most people have never met, Jennifer Garner has a rare ability to make audiences feel as though they know her. Part of that comes from her immersive acting, but it’s also in her warm, best-friend demeanor — the kind that feels familiar. This was the feeling for our entire conversation as she discussed her upcoming role in Binge drama The Five Star Weekend.
From motherhood and ambition to the chaos of everyday life, it seemed nothing was off limits. Perhaps that openness is part of the quiet force behind her success: an approachable, relatable actress with a commanding screen presence. It’s like finding a needle in the Hollywood haystack.
In what could be her most exposed role yet in The Five Star Weekend, Jennifer says she found a lot of similarities to Hollis Shaw, the homemaker-turned-food influencer whose life is upended by tragedy. Stunted by her grief, she calls for a girl’s weekend, pulling friendships from all facets of life. It was an easy thread to pull.
After all, we all have a vulnerable side. But are we willing to explore it?
“The obvious parallels between us are that I love to cook and feed people,” Jennifer, 54, tells TV WEEK. “But a lot of my friendships are isolated. If I were to have a party, it would be a friend from high school, a friend from college, a friend from living in New York and then a mish-mash of mum friends and friends from my professional life.”
Ironically, Jennifer says she felt like she knew these characters, which are based off Elin Hilderbrand’s novel by the same name.
“They felt like they were based off specific people, which Elin says they were not,” she says. “But every character has a full story to tell. Hollis and I are different in that she’s much neater than I am and she has given herself over to running her home, caring for her daughter and cooking for her family. [Whereas] I’ve gone back and forth between doing some of that and working.”
As a mother of three children – Violet, Seraphina and Samuel with ex-husband Ben Affleck, Jennifer can recall when trying to juggle her career and life as a mum felt all consuming. While she prefers to focus on the “here and now” rather than trying to have it all, she acknowledges the difficult tug-of-war between work and home.
“I went back to Alias five weeks after Violet was born [in 2005], which is so hard to believe,” she recalls. “And I was doing press and commercials soon after my second child [Seraphina] was born. I did a cover shoot and on the first day, the team had to scrap the entire day and reshoot it because I was so tired after being up with the baby. And bless them, they did and I felt so bad.
“But I still remember, I was so big and all the clothes at a shoot are obviously small… they had to split them down the back and kind of put a shoestring [through] to give me some extra room. I just remember feeling mortified, just mortified.”
After Samuel was born in 2012, Jennifer took extra time off but as two sought-after actors, Jennifer and Ben found their schedules were often fluid.
“The two of us were working, so he would go here and I’d go with him with the babies and then I’d be like, ‘Okay you’re finishing that so I’m going to start this’ and we’d always be trying to figure it out,” she says. “But I thought that I’d just pick my kids up and work as much as I ever had before. But that’s not how it turned out for me and I did need to revel in having little ones, so I was lucky to be able to do that.”
She quickly dismisses the idea of having added scrutiny due to her fame, adding that “it’s the same” juggle for anyone who has children: “I have some things that make it easier for me, and some things that made it trickier,” she says.
Throughout it all though, Jennifer says, she has strong female friendships who are always there when needed. Some of them include the likes of Reese Witherspoon and Judy Greer, but also her co-stars from Five Star Weekend.
“If you can even believe it, we had not met before this,” she says. “That is what it is to be a woman in this industry, because men work together all the time. Whereas we are siloed off in our own projects. But it was so easy [with them]. We gave each other a lot of grace for whatever our foibles are, or for whatever’s going on in our lives that would be a pain to other people. There was room for all of it, which is such a nice feeling. We’re all hopeful for a second season so we can see each other!”
Sadly, the cast did not get to go on their own girl’s weekend – “wouldn’t that have been great!” Jennifer laughs. But it did make her think about who of her former co-stars she’d take on a trip if she had the chance.
“If we’re not including the Five Star ladies, I’ll say Judy and Reese. Then, [Alias co-stars] Merrin Dungey and Gina Torres. Or, all my movie kids!” she says, which includes Australian star Angourie Rice, whom she has worked with on two seasons of Apple TV drama, The Last Thing He Told Me.
“I got a note from her the other day actually and it made me so happy. She’s one who is going to stick around, for sure.”
With much anticipation for Jennifer’s next move, many fans are hoping it will involve an Alias reboot. The espionage drama, which earned Jennifer a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Sydney Bristow, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. But would she ever revisit the iconic character? Or would she consider handing the role over to someone else?
“I do think about it,” she says of what a reboot would look like. “I think I’d love to see what Sydney is doing now. But if they were to recast it, she’d have to be young because that feels more appropriate because it’s a coming-of-age story and there’s discovery there. Maybe Emma Myer, or Yara Shadidi [Black-ish]. She and I worked on Butter [in 2012] together and she’s brilliant.”
As much as Alias has been locked in a time capsule for two decades, Jennifer isn’t opposed to reopening the vault when it comes to giving fan service. Recently, rom-com Suddenly 30 (or 13 Going on 30, as titled in the US) has seen her reunite with former co-stars in various settings and found a resurgence online.
But for now, Jennifer is focussed on the present: her family, friends and even the possibilities that a wistful summer season can bring.
“You know, I kind of feel like I’ve come of age now in my mid-fifties,” she says with a smile. “There’s something about your twenties and thirties too. [But] maybe each era has its own coming-of-age version?”
We certainly hope so.
The Five Star Weekend is available July 9 on Binge.
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