The 2000s role that almost sent Jennifer Garner into an emotional tailspin: “I just cried and cried and cried”
Currently doing the daytime chat show rounds in the UK is Jennifer Garner, which always seems strange when you get actual proper Hollywood stars being forced to make fairy cakes at 11 in the morning by Dermot O’Leary.
Nevertheless she seems reasonably happy at being roped in to such nonsense, and she’s doing it in order to promote something called The Five Star Weekend, which is her new drama series with Chloë Sevigny, adopted from a novel about a very wealthy food blogger who loses her husband and invites four friends to stay with her in the upper-class enclave of Nantucket, where they all learn lessons, and that sounds absolutely interminable let’s be honest.
It’s a far cry from what she was doing 20 years ago as a highly-trained, butt-kicking CIA agent in JJ Abrams’ Alias, the show that made her a star, but that which apparently almost got her to the point of complete exhaustion. Running for five seasons between 2001 and 2006, it was the story of Garner’s Sydney Bristow, a double agent who has to carry out deadly missions while keeping her true identity secret from friends and family.
It was a big success both for Garner and Abrams (and featured a young Bradley Cooper, for that matter) and spawned a whole universe, including graphic novels, video games and even trading cards. Garner’s profile was boosted massively, and she was soon cast in major movies like Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can, 13 Going on 30 and not just one superhero movie, Daredevil with Ben Affleck, but her own spin-off Elektra, a year later.
But juggling Alias with movie-making proved a bit too much for the actor. She told the Australian Sunday Telegraph that she broke down in front of Abrams one day, recalling, “I just cried and cried and cried and said, ‘Could I just come in late one day, or could I go home early one day? I don’t even need a whole day off, but I think I’m going to crack’.”
She added, “I didn’t even have a lunch break during the first two years [of making Alias]. Every lunchtime, somebody would be there to teach me a language or teach me to fight.”
Once Alias came to an end, Garner was able to step back a bit and made around a movie a year for some time. The ones that did well were Ghosts of Girlfriends Past with Matthew McConaughey, the Julia Roberts rom-com Valentine’s Day in 2010 and then another McConaughey movie, Dallas Buyers Club in 2013.
Since then, she’s struggled to have anything that could be described as a hit at the box office, so she’ll be hoping that The Five-Star Weekend continues her streaming success after her Apple TV series The Last Thing He Told Me did pretty well over two seasons back in 2023.
Garner will also be appearing in a comedy opposite John Cena called One Attempt Remaining, about a former couple who have to get together in order to get the password to a crypto account worth millions, plus she’ll star in a festive role reversal movie produced by Reese Witherspoon called Mrs Claus.
