“It was really serious”: the coffee shop showdown that saved Jennifer Garner’s career
Jennifer Garner came uncomfortably close to losing her most iconic role.
While his name has become somewhat of a contentious one today, thanks to his involvement in both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, JJ Abrams was writing films since the late ‘80s, before he even started directing theatrical releases.
He then became a major creative force in Hollywood as the producer behind some of the most iconic shows of the early 21st century, and one of the most important of those was Alias, with Jennifer Garner in a role that would define her career. Sydney Bristow became a generational hero, such that it is hard to imagine anyone but Garner in the role, and even though she has had memorable film roles since, Alias is what she will always be best remembered for.
The show provided a unique spin on the spy genre, which isn’t something that Abrams and his production company Bad Robot had tackled before. Lost was an epic science fiction adventure, and Felicity was a classical romantic drama, but Alias had the potential to take advantage of the burgeoning espionage field at a time when it couldn’t have been more popular. James Bond was at the peak of his powers, and both the Bourne and Mission: Impossible sagas were taking off; incredibly, Abrams ended up getting the gig to direct Mission: Impossible III because of how impressed Tom Cruise was with Alias.
Even though it was not the first show about a female spy, it utilised a serialised format that allowed Abrams to take advantage of the ‘mystery box’ setup that he had become so closely associated with. To pull this off meant that Garner had to be completely locked in to playing her character, and she admitted that she had a meeting with Abrams where her future on Alias was put into consideration.
“I might have just about lost the job in the middle of the pilot,” Garner said, “We had a real conversation where he said, ‘There are times when you really drop into the character, and there are times where…’ basically, that I wasn’t hitting it right. I don’t know if he was just trying to just encourage me to take it more seriously.”
While Garner found the interaction to be sobering and a bit frightening, she said that it empowered her to put more into the character of Sydney.
“Maybe I was having too much fun,” she said, “I’m not sure, but I do know that after that, we went a little deeper, and we went after it a little. I guess it worked, because I didn’t get fired”.
Although the incident may have been initially awkward, the production of Alias is not shrouded in as much controversy as that of Lost. The series was well-reviewed throughout its run and helped solidify Garner as a legitimate movie star when she started making the transition to the big screen. It’s also a series that holds up very well, especially when compared to the vast majority of streaming shows that don’t have a close relationship between the producers and its stars. Alias succeeds because Garner was clearly taking advantage of the effort that the show’s writers had put into making a consistent character.
