Jennifer Garner is looking back on her audition The WB’s Felicity — and recalling the emotional toll the experience had on her.
“I remember the audition. I remember going into the bathroom after because the scene was so emotional and I needed to cry,” Garner, 51, shared during the Wednesday, April 3, episode of The Ringer’s “Dear Felicity” podcast. “I needed to hide in the bathroom stall and finish the cry that I started in the audition because it was such a powerful scene.”
Speaking to podcast host Greg Grunberg, who starred Felicity as Sean Blumberg, Garner confessed that the show’s co-creator, J.J. Abrams, asked her to come back and audition for the role a second time.
“That makes sense to me, because you’re not very good,” Grunberg, 57, quipped in response. “I totally get it. I mean, notes, notes — you know what? Let me give her a block of notes to take home.”
Garner, however, insisted that needs a healthy amount of criticism and thrives off “a ton of feedback” from her collaborators. “I love that about working with J.J. and with Matt [Reeves],” she said. “They are helpful and they are true directors. They aren’t just like, ‘OK, that seems fine. You have another one in you?’ They have an idea, and they’re helping guide you to the best version of whatever you show up with.”
Striving for her most elevated performance was also “true to the audition process” for Garner. “After the first read, then I really was invested, and was like, ‘Oh gosh, I really wanna do this,’” she said.
Garner eventually landed the role of Hannah Bibb, Noel’s (Scott Foley) hometown girlfriend who visits his dorm for Thanksgiving. Her surprise drop-in causes tension between Noel and Felicity, played by Keri Russell, as the pair had just kissed without Noel clarifying that he was in a relationship with someone else. (After her guest role, Garner and Foley began dating in real life and wed in 2000. They divorced after four years of marriage.)
Noel and Hannah eventually call it quits, but Garner returned in season 4 when the show attempted an “alternate universe” arc. The four episode arc explores life if Felicity had ended up with Noel instead Ben (Scott Speedman), Felicity’s longtime love and the third part of the love triangle.
While she only made a few appearances on Felicity, Garner clearly made an impression on Abrams as he cast her as the lead of his next hit series, Alias. She starred as Sydney Bristow, a young woman who learns she has a familial history of undercover work and agrees to become an international spy for a supposed secret branch of the CIA. The series ran on ABC for five seasons from 2001 to 2006.
While speaking to Grunberg on Wednesday, Garner confessed that she’s asked about a reboot of Alias in “every interview” she does. When Grunberg assumed that she wouldn’t be open to returning for a full feature film, Garner replied, “Are you kidding? Of course I would. I’d do anything J.J. would direct.”
Abrams, however, might not be interested in revisiting the action series. During an appearance on The View in November 2023, Garner shared that while reviving Alias would be the “most fun ever,” Abrams has “never really brought it up.”
Despite not reuniting on screen, Garner noted that she and her fellow Alias castmates — including Bradley Cooper, Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin — have maintained a close bond over the years. (Garner previously dated Alias costar Michael Vartan from 2003 to 2004, and the pair have also stayed friends since their split.)
“Bradley, Victor, and Ron were just together — they were seeing Maestro, which is such an amazing movie,” she said. “I see Victor and Ron all the time. So we’re all very, very close.”
