Jennifer Garner marked her 50th birthday with an extraordinary party that she likened to “a wedding for myself,” but she says turning 51 will have a slightly less extravagant vibe.
The star of the upcoming Apple TV+ series The Last Thing He Told Me sat down to chat with Extra less than two weeks out from her birthday on April 17.
“I mean 51 is a lot less exciting than 50,” the actress said, adding she was “going to plant trees” with friends.
Garner didn’t elaborate on which friends would be planting trees, but her 50th birthday well-wishers included stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Rita Wilson, Maria Shriver, and Ina Garten.
The former Alias actress – who shares three kids with ex-husband Ben Affleck: daughters Violet, 14, Seraphina, 11, and son Samuel, 8 — is passionate about growing plants and produce, particularly on her farm. Garner has even created her own flavor of organic baby food.
This love of food was another topic of discussion on Extra. Garner was asked if her popular Instagram posts, which she has dubbed the “Pretend Cooking Show,” could become a television series.
“That’s as much as I’m going to do is do Pretend Cooking Show… once a month is about right,” the 13 Going on 30 actress said. “If I did it all the time… I would start to have to perform it and instead, you’re really just with me as I’m cooking or baking something.”
Best-selling author of The Last Thing He Told Me Laura Dave, who was in the same interview, countered by saying she could watch a Garner cooking show “every single day.”
The duo also spoke about their upcoming Apple+ project together, which Dave adapted and co-created with Josh Singer.
Garner said it was a role she wanted as soon as hearing Julia Roberts had dropped out. Garner went on a letter-writing campaign, which turned out to be a success.
“I just wrote how I felt and why, you know, why this resonated with me, and it’s not something I had done — certainly in recent memory and, or if ever — and I just kind of put it all out there. And luckily for me, I had an advocate in Reese [Witherspoon, who is an executive producer], I had an advocate in Laura and Josh, or advocates in Laura and, Josh and then Lauren Neustadter, our producer. So, I was very lucky to be here.”
The Last Thing He Told Me, based on author Dave’s 2021 novel, sees Garner’s character Hannah forging a relationship with her 16-year-old stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) to unearth the truth surrounding her husband Owen’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) disappearance.
The Last Thing He Told Me premieres April 14 on Apple TV+.