The actress has three children: Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14 and Samuel, 11.
Jennifer Garner's kids think she's extra. In a conversation with ET's Nischelle Turner, the 50-year-old actress, who plays a stepmom to a difficult teenager in her new series, The Last Thing He Told Me, reflects on how the show mirrors her reality as a mom of three.
"I think my children live feeling that way," Garner quips of her kids thinking she's extra. "They would tattoo it. They don't even need to say it. It is fact."
Garner stars on the Apple TV+ series as Hannah, a woman who teams up with her often moody teenage stepdaughter, Bailey (Angourie Rice), to find out her husband's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) secrets after he goes missing.
In real life, Garner, who shares Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14 and Samuel, 11, with her ex-husband, Ben Affleck, acknowledges that while she has "amazing teenagers" she can "feel the moments" when her character is "biting her tongue and where she is just praying for serenity now."
"That being said, again, I am close with and have amazing teenagers," Garner adds. So close, in fact, that Garner bonded with one of her kids, Seraphina, over her latest role.
"I read the book with my middle child and... bedtime went out the window until it was finished," Garner tells ET of Laura Dave's novel of the same name on which the show is based. "We were compelled to keep reading. It's so propulsive, the read, because the stakes could not be higher. They are turned on a dime again and again and again. And in the middle of it is this very tender love story between a woman and her stepdaughter, and kind of the idea of becoming a parent."
Just as Garner is close to her real-life kids, she is a big fan of Rice, her onscreen daughter. "I really love her," Garner says of the 22-year-old actress. The feeling was mutual, though Rice tells ET that it was initially "a daunting idea" to work with Garner.
"I was so nervous to meet her, even just over Zoom for my callback," Rice recalls. "She was immediately so kind and welcoming and warm and really just solidified everything I'd already heard about her, which is that she's just a ray of sunshine. That is exactly how it felt to work with her. I was so lucky to build that trust and confidence in a scene partner."
As for what she learned from Garner, Rice says, "She came into this job knowing her character, knowing the story inside out. She had a copy of the book with her at all times. It was dog-eared and annotated, underlined."
"Seeing how prepared she was and how ready she was meant that on the day everything runs smoothly, because we were able to play, we were flexible, we were able to try new things. It meant that we also had time to get to know each other and to bring the crew together as a community as well," she says. "I think that something that Jen is really good at, is making everyone feel included and part of a team."
That team also includes Reese Witherspoon, whose production company, Hello Sunshine, is producing the show, much to Garner's delight. "I mean," Garner says, "I just don't know what... more you could ask out of a role."
The Last Thing He Told Me will premiere April 14 on Apple TV+. Tune in to Tuesday's episode of Entertainment Tonight for more of ET's interview with the show's cast.
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