ELEKTRA
Q&A with Jennifer Garner		 Search all of phase9.tv






These kick-ass roles seem to come naturally to you. Would you describe yourself as a kick-ass woman in real life?

No, it’s hysterical. The roles I got for the first seven years of work were the girl next door, teary-eyed, geeky women. And all of a sudden I am branded as this kick-ass girl and it cracks me right up.

Because you don’t consider yourself a kick-ass girl in real life?

No, God no. Of course not. That’s what’s wonderful about being an actor. You’re pretending to be something that you are not. But when you play something long enough or with enough conviction, maybe people start to think that you are what you are pretending to be and that is not the case.

I love that. Before these jobs I would never have bungee jumped. I think, “Why would you torture yourself?” Now I wouldn’t be afraid to because I have done scarier. But it has taught me that the word “Action” is an incredibly powerful word. I will stand on the precipice of a building and I know when they say ‘action’ I am going to step into nothing and trust that this wire is going to let me fall and catch me and slowly take me to the bottom 80 ft. That is crazy. That is something that a crazy person does. And that is something that I, a sane, normal person wouldn’t do. But because there is someone down the bottom who yells “Action!” I will step off into nothing. I love that about my job.

That’s your double identity. You are tame Jennifer and then you become crazy Jennifer.

I’m very tame as I fall, I prey right out loud. But I have definitely found my inner adrenaline junkie. I didn’t think I had it in me. But I have to admit it isn’t me, but I do love it. It has occurred to me recently though that Elektra was hard. It was a really intense job. It was the hardest job I have ever had. It made ALIAS look like a catwalk which I didn’t think was possible.

Are you as fit as you have ever been?

I am as fit as I have ever been in this one.

And your breasts seem larger as well in ELEKTRA?

Yes, this was my best breast year. [Laughs] And you’ll notice that went away. I did not augment myself. Believe me I feel the same way. I get so embarrassed.

Embarrassed is one thing, but it must also be pretty nice.

It’s nice, it’s just you run into things with them. You just are like, “Whoops, sorry. I forgot they stuck out that far.” At least you get rid of them.

What’s actually there?

They are like these jelly packs. It’s like what would be implanted except you wear them in your bra. I’m giving away the hugest secret of movie making right now. We call them chicken cutlets. Although mine in ELEKTRA aren’t chicken cutlets, it’s more like I have the whole chicken in there. Anyways, it did occur to me at some point, after making ELEKTRA, I was on ALIAS and the stunt guy kicked me square in the stomach. And I just thought, “I’m tired of getting hurt at work. I’m tired of my job hurting. I’m ready to be a normal actress who says words and does Shakespeare and things I was trained to do.” This has been hysterical and fun and I have loved it and I hope I get to visit it again and maybe do ELEKTRA 2. I will do ALIAS as long as it is around and I will always be able to pump myself up for a fight but whatever made me so hungry for it for so long has been fulfilled.

How do you get up every day to train at 4am?

Who would train at 4am if they didn’t have to. I will start at 7am. It’s as much mental for me as it is physical. I train every single day. I’m not like, [pumps up her biceps] “whaoh, errghhh” I’m not some huge monster of a woman. I just train because it makes me feel good, it makes me strong, it’s my time, and it’s meditative for me. It’s the time I have with this wonderful woman who is a trainer and we chat about our day. It’s a luxury. So I will always do it to take care of myself. That’s how I do it now. It’s only when doing something like ELEKTRA that it is with this goal in mind of just get your body to a place as fast as you possibly can.

Would you please take us through the specifics of what training you do regularly when you are not doing ELEKTRA?

I do the same thing. I do a combination of cardiovascular stuff like jump roping, running, and bike, whatever. Sprints as well as some longer distances. Although I will tend to stick to a treadmill because if I am outside, I don’t really like to run so at a certain point, if I am running outside, all I have to do is stop and walk and nobody will know. So I kind of have to have something motivating me like a clock in front of me. And then some weight training but I never lift more than 5 pounds because we have learned that I can bulk up pretty quickly. And then a lot of stretching, yoga, pilates, resistance training and a lot of protective stuff. Especially on ELEKTRA, we did a lot to protect rotate cuffs, knees, back.

After DAREDEVIL you said you wanted to be physically fit in order to be capable of doing anything that may be required. And now is there any kind of role that you think you are not physically fit for?

No, one thing the last four years has given me is a confidence to believe that I can achieve whatever I need to for a role. Whether that is I need to be a classical violinist, I know how to practice, I know what it would take to get me to the place that I could fake being a classical violinist, well enough that most people that weren’t violinists would buy it. So whether it’s that or whether it’s physically it’s something I’ve never played tennis, I don’t have very good hand-eye coordination. But I think I could do it. I think that physically I could take on any kind of challenge that you gave me.

Do you think you could put on as much weight as Renee Zellweger did for Bridget Jones?

Of course, that’s what acting is about. It’s not about maintaining one rigid idea of yourself. Whether it’s vulnerable girl or action girl or girl who puts on weight, the whole idea is you didn’t want to settle down to one job, so you play a bunch of different things.

Are you always ready to change a light bulb because we see you do all of these amazing things, but how are you at home?

I was washing dishes this morning. I grew up in a household where my mother had three daughters and a husband. She was a part-time teacher but she was a full time homemaker. And she took such pride in making our home comfortable and pretty and we didn’t have a lot of money. But we had a full meal put in front of us every night. Now I look at what she fed us and I realize she augmented what she was making with a bunch of celery sticks cut out, or bread with butter. There wasn’t quite enough to go around but that was never a big deal. It seemed like we lived in the house of plenty. And that was her. When I was a kid, I never made my bed but I always crawled into a made bed. Now I always make my bed because I grew up loving that my mother always made my house so beautiful.

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