LOS ANGELES: Jennifer Garner is all praises for her close friend Reese Witherspoon.
Apart from starring in the new Apple TV+ series The Last Thing He Told Me, Jennifer is serving as EP alongside close friend Reese.
At the show’s Los Angeles premiere, Garner opened up about the collaborative process, expressing gratitude to Reese for producing female-led projects, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“I think the older you get and the more you’ve been kicking around for 30 years, you naturally become more central to the collaborative process,” Garner said.
She recalled reading the scripts aloud in the backyard of married co-creators Laura Dave and Josh Singer, then “over and over again tore them up, had heated discussions, but then they actually made revisions based on our conversations. They were so open to hearing my thoughts and ideas and so nuanced in the ways they made the shifts because of our conversations, that I was kind of blown away.”
The star has started doing more behind-the-scenes work in the last few years, serving as producer for the 2021 Netflix film Yes Day and the upcoming movie Family Leave. She points to Witherspoon, who has quickly created her own empire under her Hello Sunshine banner, as the reason behind her producing pivot.
“Honestly, Reese is behind that, she has really pushed me. She said to me a few years ago, ‘Nobody is sitting around thinking, what can I shoot in L.A. that’s going to have a 50-year-old woman in it?’ She’s like, ‘You’ve got to create your own stuff,'” Garner said. “All women in this town owe a debt of gratitude to Reese.”
Garner stars in The Last Thing He Told Me — which is based on Dave’s 2021 novel of the same name — as Hannah, a woman who forms an unexpected relationship with her teen stepdaughter while searching for the truth about why her husband has mysteriously disappeared.
Julia Roberts was originally set to lead the series, but after she dropped out, Garner sent letters to the creative team pitching herself for the role. (ANI)