In 1995, Garner started pursuing theater in New York City and earned $150 a week as an understudy in the play A Month in the Country for Roundabout Theatre Company. She was then cast in her first television role as part of a made-for-television movie Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel. In the late 1990s, she made brief appearances in individual episodes of Spin City and Law & Order while also securing roles in two short-lived television series, Significant Others and Time of Your Life.
Garner made her first big screen appearance of the 21st century in the comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher’s character’s girlfriend. In 2001, she appeared as the supporting character of a nurse in the big-budget epic Pearl Harbor, starring her future husband Ben Affleck.
Later in 2001, J. J. Abrams, the producer of Felicity, in which Garner had played a recurring role since 1998, approached Garner to audition for the role of Sydney Bristow in his new spy drama Alias… read more
In 1995, Garner started pursuing theater in New York City and earned $150 a week as an understudy in the play A Month in the Country for Roundabout Theatre Company. She was then cast in her first television role as part of a made-for-television movie Zoya, based on the Danielle Steel novel. In the late 1990s, she made brief appearances in individual episodes of Spin City and Law & Order while also securing roles in two short-lived television series, Significant Others and Time of Your Life.
Garner made her first big screen appearance of the 21st century in the comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?, playing Ashton Kutcher’s character’s girlfriend. In 2001, she appeared as the supporting character of a nurse in the big-budget epic Pearl Harbor, starring her future husband Ben Affleck.
Later in 2001, J. J. Abrams, the producer of Felicity, in which Garner had played a recurring role since 1998, approached Garner to audition for the role of Sydney Bristow in his new spy drama Alias. Garner, who up until now had mostly played weepy waifs, did not learn that she “might have to throw a punch or kick” until the first few days of audition. Told that she “throws like such a girl” and with no background in martial arts or gymnastics, she enrolled in a month-long, private Taekwondo class to prepare for the audition. Even as Garner was cast after several auditions, Abrams revealed that he remained panicked with the thought that she might not be able to pull off the role, especially as, on the first day of shooting, he was told by Garner herself, “I don’t think I can do this.” Garner later commented, “I was such a girlie-girl then. I didn’t even know how to punch.” While she performed many of the action sequences during the series herself, the dangerous explosions and complex fights were handled by her stunt double, Shauna Duggins. The first few episodes of season one of Alias, which averaged about 10.2 million weekly viewers, earned Garner the award for “Best Actress in a Television Series — Drama” at the 2002 Golden Globe Awards. Garner’s salary for the show began at $40,000 an episode and rose to $150,000 per episode by the series’ end. During the show’s run, Garner received four consecutive Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama well as Emmy nominations for her lead performance. She won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series in 2005. That same year, during the fourth season, Garner directed the Alias episode, “In Dreams”, which aired in May. She received producer credit during the series’ final season. The series concluded in May 2006 after a shorter fifth season that was abbreviated from 22 to 17 episodes due to Garner’s pregnancy, which was written into the season’s storyline.
After the initial success of Alias, Garner made a big screen cameo in the Steven Spielberg film Catch Me if You Can in 2002. Her breakout film role came when she played Ben Affleck’s love interest as Elektra Natchios in the action movie Daredevil (2003), an adaptation of the comic book. Garner stated that her training for Daredevil was more gruesome than her work on Alias, and revealed that as she got hung up on wires several times during fight sequences, Affleck became “in charge of reaching up and saving [her].” She was involved in a potentially serious accident on the set of Daredevil when, entangled in wires with her arms stuck and unable to move while doing a flip, she came crashing towards a wall “head-first with such velocity, that [she] was about to smash [her] head into the wall”. Recalling how she was rescued by Affleck, she said in 2003, “out of nowhere comes this 6ft 4in red devil who just kind of put his arms out and shouts: ’I’ve got her!’ I’m telling you, it was like, ’I’ve got my own superhero.’” While Daredevil got mixed reviews, it was a box office hit.
Garner starred in her first leading role in 13 Going on 30 (2004), a moderate commercial success. Reviewers praised her performance as “radiant” and “effervescent without ever being cloying”, and The Christian Science Monitor commented that “while Garner is no Tom Hanks, she’s consistently appealing”. Her second lead role saw her reprising the character of Elektra in the 2005 Daredevil spin-off titled Elektra, a box office disaster that was panned by critics. The Boston Globe stated, “Based on Garner’s humorlessness, lack of vocal inflection, and generally bland disposition, “the Way” she has yet to grasp seems to be that of acting,” whereas USA Today concluded that "Jennifer Garner … is far more appealing when she’s playing charming and adorable, as she did so winningly in 13 Going on 30.
Garner performed the Frank Loesser song “My Heart Is So Full of You” on the 2006 charity album Unexpected Dreams – Songs From the Stars. Her next few films, Catch and Release (2006) and The Kingdom (2007) alongside Jamie Foxx, Jason Bateman and Ashraf Barhom, were box office as well as critical failures. She then appeared in the Jason Reitman-directed comedy/drama feature Juno, which became a sleeper box office hit. After that film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Entertainment Weekly declared Garner’s work the best female supporting performance of the festival, saying, “The star of Alias and The Kingdom does no butt-kicking in this sweet comedy. Instead, as a young wife desperately hoping to adopt, she’s funny, a bit tough, and unbelievably touching.”
Garner made her Broadway debut on November 1, 2007, playing Roxanne in Cyrano de Bergerac alongside Kevin Kline at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway. The show was originally set to run until December 23, 2007, but it was extended through January 6, 2008 due to the Broadway stagehand strike in late 2007.
Garner appeared in the hit ensemble romantic comedy Valentine’s Day in 2010. —wikipedia
