Jennifer Garner is many things, among them a baby food innovator, actor, parent, and “bless their heart” energy expert. She’s been employing some of these facets in combination on the press tour for her upcoming Apple TV+ series, The Last Thing He Told Me, a thriller that is sort of Stepmom meets The Firm. Based on the Laura Dave novel of the same name, it premieres this week. (The baby food is quite good but does not come into play here.)
Combining parent and actor, she told InStyle that the three kids she shares with ex-husband Ben Affleck will probably take a pass on watching the new series, as they do much of her work. She’s a nice mom, and they’d like to continue seeing her as such, evidently.
“My kids don’t love to watch me in things,” Garner said. “They do to be supportive, but I think it’s a little weird to watch your mom kiss someone or cry. It’s different. They don’t mind watching their dad. They don’t want to see me sad and they don’t want to see me in a romance. They don’t love seeing me play someone else’s mom, honestly. I don’t know if they’ll watch this.”
Admittedly, Affleck’s movies typically feature much less kissing and crying from dear old dad, though that likely means they skipped The Way Back. Watch Mom cry? No. Watch Dad pull off Argo’s plane diplomatic rescue moment? Presumably, that one doesn’t hit quite as close to home.
At an event promoting the show in New York City Wednesday night attended by Vanity Fair, Garner delivered some emergency contact realness, nodding at her real-life image as a reasonable, responsible mom, a role that her character Hannah also must take on in the show.
“Hannah is, above all else, she’s asked to be the grown-up in the room,” Garner said. “And that is something that I think my life has asked of me at times, and it’s something that I know that I can deliver on.”
Another high-profile Hollywood parent is behind the scenes of the show: Reese Witherspoon walked the red carpet at the show’s LA premiere on Thursday night, her first appearance since announcing her divorce from Jim Toth, citing “irreconcilable differences.” She is an executive producer on the series, which is under her Hello Sunshine production umbrella.
Witherspoon praised Garner’s “passion” for the project in a talk with Access Hollywood at the event. “It was so great to hear her passion,” she said. “She picked up the phone, we had long conversations about it. It was the perfect part for her. I love that she was going to be this kick-ass woman.”
