Following Your Heart for Meaningful Change with Jennifer Garner
“It just bothered me being little in West Virginia and seeing kids where I thought, I know that she’s smart. So why did she get held back? And I can see that the front of his shoes are cut open to make room for his toes. And I can see it. There’s something very not fair here.” – Jennifer Garner
Episode 01
Jen and her longtime friend, Amy Hardin, return together to introduce this previous interview with Jennifer Garner that was one of For the Love’s top downloaded episodes of all time. Jen and Amy chat about their favorite Jennifer Garner projects and how impressed they are with her activism and philanthropic work.
In the interview itself, Jennifer Garner shares how she navigates life as a mom, an entrepreneur, and an actress. So many of us have followed Jen’s career through TV & film, but she takes us back to the early days when she fell in love with theater, doing auditions in New York while she slept on the floor of a friend’s home who offered a place to lay her head. We also find out that her first job was working with Melissa Gilbert (Laura Ingalls of Little House on the Prairie fame) and how that eventually led to working with J.J. Abrams in Felicity, who then cast her in her breakout role as the star of Alias. The two Jens discuss everything from what it’s like to raise kids as they transition from littles to bigs and what eventually drove Jen’s pursuits outside of Hollywood to co-found Once Upon a Farm and become involved with Save the Children.
Jen: All right, everybody. Hi. Welcome to the show. So it’s been a couple of episodes. So if you’re a loyal downloader and listener. You have met my friend Amy Hardin already. Hi.
Amy: Hi, good morning.
Jen: Good morning, I’m so glad you’re here and you keep coming here.
Amy: I keep coming.
Jen: You do. I keep thinking, this could be the day she punts and goes “I don’t know about it”, but here you are and I love it. You’re here for a good one because we are bringing back one of our most downloaded episodes of all time. This is not surprising because it is with a little struggling actor named Jennifer Garner.
Amy: I’ve heard of her. Have you?
Jen: I have and that’s great, I won’t have to give you her resume. Super. I think she’s going to make it. She just needs to keep trying. You know, her work pays off. Just keep on going Jen, you’ll get there. This episode originally aired as part of a series we had called For the Love of Transitions which ran back in July 2021. A little fun fact. you will remember this, July 2021 was my first MeCamp and I interviewed her from Maine. I have seared in memory this exact interview because I had to take a walk around the block and do deep breathing exercises to get ready. It’s Jen Garner, right? I didn’t have my equipment. I was in a rental house. It was kind of a half-ass situation and here I’ve got this literal superstar. A global superstar. I’ll always remember sitting in my little convent. Do you remember the convent?
Amy: I do, yeah.
Jen: And being like, “She’s just a person. She’s a person like you.”
Amy: It turns out, she’s the nicest, most normal, kind person.
Jen: Genuinely. I feel like people say that all the time about famous people, but sometimes it’s only medium true. You know what I mean?
Amy: If at best.
Jen: Not for her. No, not for her. She is super normal. She would just be a normal girl sitting in this room with us. I was so delighted to find out that that was true. In fact, before the episode, because she had my kind of information in case we needed anything, she was texting me and I remember standing out on the sidewalk, in Maine, in front of my rental house, and I was like, “ I’m texting Jen Garner on my phone.”
Amy: Regardless of how normal she is, that’s not normal.
Jen: No. It felt really crazy. In this episode, for those of you listening, we talk about her early beginnings and transition into becoming an actor and then transitioning into becoming an activist. If you follow her, she’s a pretty extraordinary ambassador for good in the world. She co-founded Once Upon a Farm, which is right up your alley.
Amy: Right.
Jen: Let’s talk about this before we kick over to the episode. There are so many to pull from, this is like asking who’s your favorite kid. But do you have a favorite Jen Garner, either movie or TV show? We’ll go either way because she goes big screen, small screen an equal amount.
Amy: I’m like the rest of the whole world.
Jen: I know what you’re going to say.
Amy: 13 going on 30 but that’s such an obvious answer that it’s not even an answer. I will always watch that movie if it comes on. I love it so much. Honestly, she’s just genuinely good in everything.
Jen: She absolutely is. Oh my gosh. She did, I think it’s on Netflix and it was The Last Thing He Told Me. It’s out of a book. Did you read that book?
Amy: I watched that, but I had no clue it was shot in Austin.
Jen: How could you not know that? They’re running around the UT campus and everybody’s in burnt orange. Literally, every single background actor is in burnt orange and they’re on Sixth Street.
Amy: Okay, but isn’t it set in Seattle?
Jen: Yes but in their chase, they do a whole section in Austin.
Amy: Well now I remember this.
Jen: Yes.
Amy: But I did love it.
Jen: Good. Me too. So last question on her shows. Did you ever watch Love, Simon?
Amy: No, I haven’t, but my niece just told me last month to watch it on the airplane. Then she told me she had an emotional breakdown on the airplane and I decided not to watch that.
Jen: That is such real feedback. It is a tear-jerker, There’s a scene where essentially her teen son comes out to her in a certain way, and her speech to him is one that I have referred parents to when they’re like, “How should I give the most wonderful, loving response to my kid when they come out to me” and I’m like, “Please watch. Love, Simon, and just copy everything Jen Garner’s character says to her son. There, now you have the script.” She’s phenomenal. Let’s talk real quickly before we move in, as mentioned earlier, Jen and I talk about food insecurity and her philanthropy work. She’s serious and one thing that I liked talking to her about was particularly her work on Once Upon a Farm, which focuses on domestic child hunger in very hidden communities that are struggling. She’s in Appalachia a lot for example. This is one thing people are going to learn about you when it comes to food and food supply, this is in your wheelhouse. Any thoughts on her work there?
Amy: I was really glad to find out that her line of baby food is WIC-approved.
Jen: Oh, yeah. She made a huge deal of that.
Amy: I’ve watched people navigate that system and it is incredibly complicated. Then you look at an ingredient list of what’s approved and I was happy to hear that she fought so hard for that.
Jen: Me too because when you hear about a boutique, organic, farm supply, you’re thinking, “I guess I’ll take out a second job to afford some of your products.” Instead, she’s combined her conviction for healthy, whole organic food with food insecurity. She’s the real deal. You’re going to love hearing about this. You’re going to love hearing about her early days in New York and then moving to LA and how she got discovered. It’s fun because so many of us watched her come up. My first key intro to her was Alias, but before that, we had her in Felicity. This is our age group of course. So anyway, you’re going to love it, you guys. I don’t need to tell you you’re going to love Jen Garner. In other words, we are the Jen Garner Fan Club and I’m so happy that you’re here and I hope you enjoy this episode.
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