The Safe House - Expositions

Hard to believe, but just two years ago, Jennifer Garner's sole claim to fame was a supporting part in the Ashton Kutcher comedy “Dude, Where's My Car?” Now the 30-year-old Charleston, West Virginia-raised actress (who won a Golden Globe last year for her role on ABC's Alias) has bigger things to brag about – like Steven Spielberg calling to ask her to appear in Catch Me If You Can and playing Ben Affleck's leading lady, Elektra, in Daredevil. So what's the story on this rising star, who has also signed up for a Daredevil sequel? Read on…

She's come a long way from her band-geek days.
It's true! The girl who plays a tough-as-nails CIA agent on Alias was on the swim team and played the saxophone in high school. “It was a source of ridicule, but it didn't bother me,” Garner has said. She also had Coke-bottle eyeglasses and big bangs!

She's no longer a comic-book newbie.
“I grew up in a family of three girls [she's the middle child], so we grew up reading Seventeen and Little House on the Prairie, not comic books,” says Garner. “But I wish I had [read the Daredevil comics] because Elektra is incredibly empowering – I've read all of her saga now!” She quickly embraced her role as leather-clad Elektra, who's fixated on finding her tycoon father's murderer (her prime suspect: Daredevil!).

She gives high marks to her leading man.
“Ben is sexy because he's kind, he's a big goofball, and he's tall, dark and handsome,” she gushes about her costar. “It seems like a rite of passage to be his girlfriend in a movie.” In fact, Garner appeared in Affleck's 2001 epic, Pearl Harbor – but her peripheral character didn't share any scenes with her future movie love. “I watched him on the set treat everyone [kindly]. I thought, This is the guy to do your first big movie with.”

She prefers the quiet life with her husband, Scott Foley.
Both have their separate TV shows now (he's on the new NBC sitcom A.U.S.A.), but Garner and her husband of nearly two and a half years – they met on the set of Felicity in 1998 – are more homebodies than party people. After she won her Golden Globe, the couple left, picked up some pizza and watched the end of the ceremony in their Los Angeles home with their two dogs and cat. “We really appreciate the normal life more now than we did before,” Foley, 30, tells Us.

She's ready for more high-flying action.
“I'm not an adrenaline junkie when I'm not at work – I scream my head off on a roller coaster, and I would not bungee jump,” she says. “but on the show, there's nothing too scary for me. My dream is to be dangled from the bottom of a helicopter on a wire. I just think that would be so cool. Is ABC listening?” Us hopes.

Jen's Style Evolution Garner strikes Us as the female Clark Kent. Why? Though early on she sported spectacles (and, uh, a too Pretty in Pink taffeta ensemble), she showed up at last year's Emmys (far right) looking, well, super, man!

US Magazine

February 24, 2003
Pg. 61

How She Looks So Elektra-fying!

She had already shed five pounds and earned a yellow belt in tae kwon do to play Alias spy Sydney Bristow. But after Garner landed the role of Elektra in Daredevil, she wanted a body worthy of a superheroine. “We had to make sure she would be believable kicking some guy's butt,” says her trainer, Valerie Walters. The rough regimen: Chinese Goju karate lessons three times a week, hour-long weight-lifting and cardio sessions six times a week, which sometimes included 30-minute runs, as well as the occasional yoga class. Amazingly, Garner says, “I don't miss any workouts; it can be four in the morning.” Such dedication inspired her husband, A.U.S.A. star Scott Foley, to weat a bit too. 'With the amount she works out, I have to go to the gym if I want to see her,” he says. “Plus, when you wife looks that good, you can't slack off!”

Daredevil

5-Second Synopsis

A taut Ben Affleck plays the blind comic-book superhero Daredevil, who clashes with thugs in New York City. He's also pitted against Elektra (Jennifer Garner), who thinks DD killed her father!

Back To All About Alias 2003