Garner’s breakout lead role in ‘Alias’ meant an “overwhelming” transition to stardom, she said
Credit: Frazer Harrison/WireImage
NEED TO KNOW
- Jennifer Garner appeared on Aspire with Emma Grede to reflect on her life and career on Tuesday, Aug. 25
- Asked about her early success as the breakout star of Alias, the actress recalled losing touch with friends and learning “to recalibrate” and cope with being “overwhelmed”
- “You lose a couple of years of life when you become famous,” said Garner
Jennifer Garner is reflecting on her early days of fame.
Appearing on the interview podcast Aspire with Emma Grede on Tuesday, Aug. 25, Garner, 54, recalled her “overwhelming” transition to becoming a household name when cast as the lead in spy drama Alias.
“I don’t remember a lot of it because the hours were so intense,” said the actress. “But looking back, I’m aware of how overwhelmed I was. You lose a couple of years of life when you become famous.”
Credit: Kevin Winter/ImageDirect
Asked about how her success felt early on in her screen career, Garner said, “You have to recalibrate. You have to find yourself. I looked back and was like, ‘Wait, what happened to that friendship?’ It was me.”
Admitting that she initially felt “an embarrassment around” losing touch with old friends, the mother of three has “enough distance from that now to know and to take ownership of that and to call those friends and say, ‘Ah, I think I disappeared there for a minute.’ ”
Laughing, she added, “‘It’s 20 years later, but hi. How you doing? What you been up to?’ ”
Although transitioning to the spotlight “took a minute to adjust to,” Garner recalled that filming Alias with costars Michael Vartan, Ron Rifkin and Victor Garber and creator J.J. Abrams was a blast.
“The time on set was the happiest I’ve ever had,” she said with a smile, adding that those relationships have endured. “I think I’ve texted with almost everyone in the show in the last week, if not most of them in the last 48 hours!”
Credit: Emma Grede/Youtube
Garner also remembered moving to New York City and scraping by with theater gigs before booking her breakout screen role. “There was, there is, a certain amount of confidence that comes from no expectations,” she said.
“I only wanted to be on stage,” Garner added, but “I kept getting hired to be on camera. And I was broke.”
Her ideal gig, she continued, is still to be part of a theater ensemble. “My happiest, truly, if you could plop me somewhere, it would be to be in the middle of a chorus of people singing and dancing on Broadway. Not out in front. In the thick of it.”
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Following her lead role in The Five Star Weekend, Garner has One Attempt Remaining and the Netflix reboot of 13 Going on 30 among her upcoming screen projects.
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