Jennifer Garner, who has catapulted into stardom
with her lead role on the series Alias (2001), has come a long
way from her birthplace of Houston, Texas. Raised in Charleston,
West Virginia, by her mother Pat, a retired English teacher, and
her father, Bill, a former chemical engineer, Jennifer was the
middle sibling of three girls. She spent nine years of her adolescence
studying ballet and describes her years in dance as ones characterized
by determination, rather than talent, being driven mostly by a
love of the stage. Jennifer took this determination with her when
she enrolled at Denison University as a chemistry major, a decision
that was later changed to a drama major when she found that her
passions for the stage were stronger than her love of science.
New York attracted the young actress after college where she worked
as a hostess while pursuing a career in film and television.
While doing summer stock in Atlanta, Georgia, a
few years back, Jennifer Garner approached a veteran New York
stage actress for career advice. "She told me to forget acting
and go get a paralegal degree," recalls Garner. "I wanted
to kung-fu her and take her down!" Instead, Garner focused
on moving from stage work to TV shows like "Law & Order"
and "Felicity," where she met her husband, Scott Foley.
After honing her acting chops with various film roles, Garner
was cast as Ashton Kutcher's girlfriend in last December's stoner
comedy Dude, Where's My Car? She one-upped that when director
Michael Bay chose her to play Nurse Sandra opposite Ben Affleck
and Josh Hartnett in the upcoming Pearl Harbor.
Working for the first time on an epic-scale picture was difficult
enough; being a female on a male-oriented set was an extra challenge.
"None of us women had really done an action film before and
Michael had never done an action film with women, so there were
a lot of tears shed and a lot of pressure." The cure for
the Pearl Harbor blues? "We'd all gather at the makeup trailer
and play Madonna's "The Immaculate Collection" and put
on our Hawaiian grass skirts and coconut bras and dance around
and make each other laugh." Following Pearl Harbor's release,
Garner will make a brief appearance opposite Foley in the upcoming
indie Rennie's Landing, about a group of college grads who plan
a bank heist. As a Young Hollywood couple who have already shared
screen time twice, how do Garner and Foley handle love scenes
that occur with other actors?
"I think it's fair to say that Scott gets more jealous than
I do. However, on the night before our wedding, I turned on the
TV and there was the "Felicity" episode in which Tyra
Banks straddles Scott and thrusts her ta-tas in his face. He was
like, "Tyra Banks is hot." I thought, 'Oh, how nice.'"
Garner flashes a wicked smile. "But what can you do? She
is hot--I'd kiss her."--
