How Jennifer Garner Earns “Cool Points” With Her and Ben Affleck’s Son Samuel
It’s not a Yes Day that has Jennifer Garner‘s kids impressed.
The Alias actress revealed what her and ex Ben Affleck‘s children Violet, 17, Seraphina, 14, and Samuel, 11, really think of her movie appearances.
While it ranges from embarrassment to pride, Garner exclusively told E! News’ Francesca Amiker that she did indeed earn “cool points” for starring in Netflix’s Family Switch with The Office’s Ed Helms and Wednesday‘s Emma Myers.
“I watched it with my son in his class,” she said. “The class had a blast. And my son was embarrassed going into it, because he knew what was coming. But then when he saw his buddies having so much fun, he had a great time.”
However, for Garner, the best reaction didn’t come from Samuel.
“The thing that made me the most excited—I mean, I love hearing the kids laugh—but there were a couple of my friends who were moms who were chaperoning this outing,” she recalled, “and they told me after that they cried. And I was like, ‘Yes!'”
In fact, being a mom herself has impacted the roles she chooses.
“I just feel like to be part of a kid’s memory bank of something happy that they experience with their family as a kid, that’s joy for me,” Garner noted. “I was somewhere with my family this summer and I was on a carousel and it was dark. And a little kid from another country saw me and they were like ‘Yes Day!'”
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“That’s wonderful,” she continued. “That’s the whole reason to get to do this job.”
And for those looking to experience her movie magic, Family Switch is all about the chaos that arises when two parents somehow swap bodies with their teens just days before Christmas. The movie drops on Netflix Nov. 30.
In the meantime, say yes to this look back at more of Garner’s best roles.
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Time of Your Life
From 1999 to 2000, Jennifer Garner played Romy Sullivan, a struggling actress who lives with Sarah Reeves Merrin (Jennifer Love Hewitt) in San Francisco. The short-lived series was the spinoff to Party of Five and showed Sarah moving to San Fran to find herself, get in touch with her roots and meet her biological father.
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Dude, Where’s My Car?
The star played a goofy role as prankster Ashton Kutcher‘s girlfriend in this 2000 comedy classic.
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Pearl Harbor
In the 2001 movie that brought us to tears, Garner played a more serious role in the story of two best friends and their romantic endeavors as they go off to join the war.
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Alias
For five seasons, Garner played the lead, Sydney Bristow, on Alias. On the show, which ran from 2001 to 2006, Sydney is a young college graduate who becomes a secret agent and eventual double agent spy in the U.S. determined to take down a rogue international agency.
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Catch Me if You Can
Things got really hot and steamy in this 2002 film between Garner and Leonardo DiCaprio in the film based on a true story of a young man who became a millionaire before his 19th birthday.
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Daredevil
Together with Daredevil (Ben Affleck), Elektra Natchios (Garner) fights crime in this action-packed film.
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13 Going on 30
In 2004, the Hollywood actress plays a young girl who wakes up as a 30-year-old woman on her 13th birthday. From dolls to stilettos, Garner’s character Jenna Rink quickly learns the lesson of being careful of what you wish for.
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Elektra
In 2005, Garner’s titular character became an assassin and fought off the supernatural after surviving a near-death experience.
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Catch and Release
In Catch and Release, the 47-year-old actress plays Gray, a woman in mourning struggling to rebuild her life while trying to cope with the death of her fiancé.
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The Kingdom
In this 2007 thriller, Garner takes on the role of an FBI agent sent to investigate the bombing of an American facility in the Middle East.
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Juno
Garner’s Vanessa Loring, is a woman who is supposed to become the new parent of a child when Juno (Elliot Page), a teenager, finds herself pregnant and unable to care for the child in this 2007 film.
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Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past stars Matthew McConaughey, a womanzier who is visited by the ghosts of all the girlfriends he’s left in the dust. In the film, Garner is Connor’s (McConaughey) childhood friend, Jenny, who is the only woman that can resist his charming ways.
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The Invention of Lying
In 2009, the Golden Globe winner acted in the film about a world where no one has ever lied until someone discovers the art of deception for personal benefit.
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Valentine’s Day
Garner plays Julia, a school teacher who is falling for a man she doesn’t know is married when in fact deep down she has already found love with her best friend and florist Reed (Kutcher), in this 2010 rom-com that shows the lives of different Los Angeles residents on Valentine’s Day.
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Arthur
It’s hard to imagine not liking Garner, but in this 2011 comedy, she plays a shrewd assistant who tries to further her career by marrying a playboy (Russell Brand).
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The Odd Life of Timothy Green
In 2012, the star played the role of Cindy Green, a woman who let nature take its course when she and her husband retrieved a miracle child after burying their wishes in a box in their backyard.
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Dallas Buyers Club
Garner reunited with former costar McConaughey for this 2013 film where she played Dr. Eve Saks, the heartwarming physician who treated McConaughey’s character after he was diagnosed with AIDS and told he had 30 days to live.
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Draft Day
The 2014 film about one of the biggest days in sports features Garner playing Ali, the girlfriend behind the man calling the shots during the NFL Draft. Her character understands football and is there to support Sonny Weaver Jr. (Kevin Costner) through his life-altering decisions.
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Danny Collins
The Texas native plays the wife of rock star Danny Collins (Al Pacino), who, after reading a 40-year-old letter from John Lennon, makes the decision to fix his long-gone relationships and his life in this 2015 flick.
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Miracles From Heaven
In this tearjerker, Garner’s devout character refuses to give up on her young daughter Anna, who has an incurable disorder.
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Love, Simon
In the YA-based film, Garner plays the supportive mom of a high school student coming to grips with his sexual orientation.
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Peppermint
After her husband and daughter were brutally murdered, Riley North (Garner) becomes a vigilante and cleans up the corrupt streets of L.A. in this 2018 action flick.
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Camping
Kathryn (Garner) plans a trip for her husband Walt’s (David Tennant) 45th birthday to go camping with friends on this HBO series and it quickly spirals out of control despite the fact that she has planned out every second of every day.
