Jennifer Garner may have played various characters, but taking on the role of mother proved to be her most challenging. Fortunately for the actor, her hit television series Alias already prepared her for what to expect as a parent.
How ‘Alias’ helped Jennifer Garner become a parent
Becoming an action hero on Alias wasn’t easy for Garner. To portray the super spy Sydney Bristow, she had to keep herself in tip top shape to believably and physically fend off her opponents. But there was a time when being on the show actually had the opposite effect on Garner’s body. Speaking with TV Line, Garner once shared the show’s early morning schedule interfered with her training regimen.
“I remember, I was getting out of shape because I never had time to work out. We were starting at 5 a.m. or something, and I said [to Carl Lumbly, who played Marcus Dixon], ‘I didn’t get to work out. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I feel like my body’s going to change, and I won’t be able to do the fights,’” she recalled.
However, Lumbly would give her simple yet effective advice that solved her problems.
“And he said, ‘Well, I went for a run this morning.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about? We started at 5!’ He said, ‘Jennifer, I ran at 4.’ He said, ‘You can always get up earlier. You can always do half an hour, always,’” Garner said. “And when they talk about, ‘Oh, Jen worked out at [an ungodly hour],’ it started that day. Because I felt like if Carl can do it… Of course, he’s right. You just have to dig deeper. You have to have more discipline. And I did. I did absolutely work out at whatever time was required so I could show up warmed up and ready.”
Years later, that kind of advice would help Garner tremendously when it came to raising her kids.
“Alias set me up in a good way for motherhood because I did run on no sleep for so long and I did push myself so hard,” Garner said in a 2009 interview with Parade. “Everybody talked about how hard the sleep thing was with babies and I thought ‘Oh, this isn’t that bad! You’re sleeping some!’ But it’s never-ending. There’s never a weekend or there’s never a night, that’s what’s harsh. On Alias at least I had to stay in shape for my job so it was just part of my day no matter what. Now finding that hour for myself is much harder to find. I have to do it before they’re awake.”
Jennifer Garner refused to diet anymore after doing projects like ‘Alias’
Even years after Alias ended, the training and dieting she did for the television series continues to affect her. In an interview with Yahoo Beauty, Garner revealed that she avoided doing too much heavy dieting in her more mature years.
“I dieted for so long in the middle of doing Alias and being a superhero, that there’s something in me that can’t do anything that extreme,” she said.
Nowadays, Garner keeps in shape with a moderate exercise and diet routine she can turn to without the added pressure of being in superhero shape.
“Yes, I eat a lot, a lot of salads. That’s the way that I get my veggies. I eat lots of leafy greens, dark greens, with rice too because I want it to be a meal. I just have a big bag of greens that I get from the farmer’s market on Sunday. I keep it in a Ziploc bag and I just pull out handfuls of it for lunch everyday and add whatever I have to it,” she added.
