CELEBRITIES
How is Jennifer Garner spending her 51st birthday?
The ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’ actress is planning on doing something for the environment the day she turns 51.
Jennifer Garner always tries to commemorate her birthday by making a gesture for others. For her 51st birthday, she’s doing something to care for planet Earth.
The ‘13 Going On 30′ actress has decided to plant trees on her 51st birthday, which is April 17.
Garner is currently making the touring rounds to promote her new series, ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’, which will be available on Apple TV+ on April 14.
Jennifer Garner planting trees on her birthday
Garner celebrated her 50th birthday listening to Donny Osmond sing to her — but she also did 50 good deeds in the weeks leading up to the big day.
She told Extra her plans to do something to steward the environment on her special day.
“I mean, 51 is a lot less exciting than 50, but I’m going to plant trees,” Garner revealed.
What is Jennifer Garner’s new series?
In ‘The Last Thing He Told Me’, Garner plays the lead role of Hannah, whose husband has just disappeared after he left her a note asking her to look after her step-daughter.
Garner contrasted her character’s personality to that of her own — “a quiet sit in the corner cat” vs a “Labrador retriever puppy”.
To get into character, Garner has taken up woodworking.
“It’s so meditative and such a concentrated activity,” Garner said. “It started out we would do a couple hours at a time, and by the end, I would stay there five or six hours and then go back on Sunday and do the same thing because our projects got more and more complex and I just wanted to see them to completion and I LOVED it!”
In Julia Robert’s footsteps
Garner has revealed that the role almost went to Julia Roberts, who ultimately withdrew due to scheduling conflicts — and that’s when Garner threw her name into the hat.
“I knew that was when I had to strike,” Garner explained. “So I just went crazy and literally put my kids to bed, then brewed a pot of coffee and just stayed up all night and really wrote just how I felt and why this resonated with me.”
Unchartered territory
The actress said that she usually doesn’t petition after a role like that, but this one was different.
“It’s not something I had done, certainly, in recent memory and or, if ever, and I just put it all out there and luckily, for me, I had an advocate in Reese [Witherspoon], I had an advocate in Laura [Dave],” she said.
Laura Dave wrote the book that Garner’s new series is based on. The author had a chance to see the actress’ heartfelt letters.
“‘Something that Jen talked about in one of the letters that I got to see, was she talked about being the grown-up in the room,” Dave said. “And, I think to be the grown-up in the room, you have to be strong and you have to be vulnerable and you have to be human and you have to be able to toe the line and get to the better place.”