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JENNIFER GARNER...EVERYTHING THAT'S FUN TO KNOW
21 APRIL 2004. SOURCE: TEEN HOLLYWOOD

Jennifer Garner was a band geek! Okay, maybe not quite like the Alyson Hannigan character in AMERICAN PIE but, she wasn't the prom queen. In this interview with Teen Hollywood, Jen tells how she made her own mental blast to her past in West Virginia to recapture her inner-13-year-old girl for her role in 13 GOING ON 30.

Teen Hollywood: Do you keep in touch with your friends from your teens?

Jennifer: Oh, of course. Yeah, a couple was just staying at my house that was one of my friends when I was little. My best friend is somebody that I grew up dancing with. She lives in Atlanta and I talk to her. I'm still really close with everyone at home and their parents. And their brothers and sisters. I was so, so lucky to grow up as part of a community and I don't take that for granted. I try very hard to stay part of it.

Teen Hollywood: You'll never ditch your roots?

Jennifer: No. I can't imagine that anyone really would. Maybe I'm just lucky that I came from a great place, but I'm so glad and so relieved to see people that I've known forever and to just sit down and talk about our dogs and gardening and normal real life and our parents and siblings. I think I would feel that way if I worked on an oil ship somewehre and only got home every nine months. I think that it's not as crazily different, my job, from anyone else's, as people let themselves believe. I think people get wrapped up in their own idea of what it is, but it's really not that.

Teen Hollywood: How have kids changed since you were 13?

Jennifer: Now, they are sophisticated but they still are incredibly innocent. I hung out with girls in West Virginia as well that were 13 because I went home right before I started the movie. And, I think that they have so much available to them now. They can stay in constant contact with each other. They can get on the Internet and find anything out. I mean, all the obvious things, but at the core, I think they still pretty much feel the same. I feel bad for them that there are such an overwhelming amount of options in sitting-on-your-butt entertainment. It makes it harder and harder I think to rev up and be part of a soccer team or be on the swim team or whatever it is, the stuff that actually builds who you are.

Teen Hollywood: How tricky was it getting into the 13-year-old mindset?

Jennifer: If you were to hang out on the set of ALIAS, you would very quickly agree with the cast and crew that I'm 30 when the camera is rolling and 13 when they say "cut". I think all of us have our inner 13-year-old a lot closer to the surface than we're willing to admit even to ourselves. I think we can all pretty quickly, if put in the right situation, go back to feeling like "oh gosh, I don't know, I should have worn this, should I be - I feel like I shouldn't have eaten that." I drew from my own life, my own experience and also of course, I know you've heard about the sleepover and that was more of a reminder that 13-year-olds and particularly these girls that I was hanging out with, are smart and sophisticated and capable of absolutely having any kind of adult conversation and then they flip and surprise you by being children and goofy and dramatic. So it was constantly making sure that I didn't go too far in any one direction. PART 2 / BACK TO THE TOP