Jennifer Garner likes to begin most days by hitting the gym as early
as 4:30 a.m. An hour of cardio, weight circuits and stretching and she's
off to a gruelling 15-hour day on the set of her hit TV series Alias.
That doesn't leave much time for the Houston native to spend with her
husband of two years, actor Scott Foley. Still, she insists, "He's
the one I want to be with when I do have the time, so we make it happen
whenever we can."
Recently, Garner, 5-foot-8 with flowing, shoulder-length brunette locks,
ducked out of a cast dinner honouring her new movie Daredevil, offering
only: "I'm sorry guys, I've got a date."
Garner and Foley have been hopeless romantics since their first meeting
on the set of his now-cancelled teen drama Felicity in 1998.
"I remember the very first day going home and telling my roommate
'That's the girl I'm gonna marry,'" he gushed in January. But it
wasn't exactly that easy.
"I let him woo me for a little," Garner says with a smile.
"And he did. He was very determined."
First came the phone calls. Then the flowers.
"He took me for drives and made me dinner," she remembers.
"And he didn't try to kiss me too soon. He definitely took his time."
Garner admits a romantic trip to Paris finally sealed the deal. "We
rode the Ferris wheel, held hands, sipped hot chocolate in bistros and
fell completely and ridiculously in love," she says.
Two years later, Foley still lights the walkway to their house with candles
and wakes up early on weekends to cook his wife breakfast in bed.
The couple was married on Oct. 19, 2000 in the backyard of their San
Fernando Valley home. So far, despite their busy schedules, the relationship
is holding firm. The house, however was another story. "The plumbing
didn't work, the septic tank was old, and the electricity was kind of
off," Garner laughs. "So we just moved to a smaller place where
everything works."
They brought along their Maltese terrier Charlie Rose (not named after
the American TV newscaster) and a beagle-boxer mix named Maggie May that
Foley rescued one afternoon after she had been hit by a car. "We
became an instant family," Garner says. It may be a while, however,
before there are any further additions to the household.
"We're both still young and although we want to have children and
we've spoken about it, we are both pretty happy with our lives right now,
living one day at a time," Foley says.
On rare nights off, Garner and Foley enjoy quiet nights at home playing
Scrabble or Gin. This weekend they are going to New York City where Garner
was scheduled to host Saturday Night Live. It's a final chance to promote
her role in Daredevil, a big-screen adaptation of the popular Marvel comic,
starring Ben Affleck as the blind superhero. It opens Friday.
Garner stars as Elektra Natchios, a Ninja assassin and Daredevil's old
flame. "What I love about Elektra is that she is Daredevil's equal,"
Garner says. "She can take him physically. She is as smart as he
is. She is absolutely capable of taking care of herself ... yet she has
a very feminine side."
So does Garner, who grew up playing the saxophone and dancing ballet.
She was never much of a comic fan growing up in Charleston, W. Va. "I
followed Little House On The Prairie and Emily Of New Moon," she
says.
Garner is the middle of three girls born to Pat, a retired English teacher
and Bill, a former chemical engineer. While enrolled at George Washington
High School, Garner and her best friend Carrie babysat, took care of neighbours'
pets and sold ice cream to earn enough money for clothes from her favourite
store, The Limited. She dated a popular football player, but wasn't exactly
a social butterfly. "I wasn't popular, but I wasn't tragic, either,"
Garner says with a laugh. "I didn't like parties and I still don't."
Instead, she prefers gardening, hiking and cooking. In fact, while filming
the pilot for Alias, each Sunday night Garner would prepare all of her
meals for the following week. "I would just have a big cook-a-thon
and make all of these healthy things: soup, chicken breast, vegetable
lasagna," she says.
Garner, who admits to having a soft spot for Martha Stewart ("I
know she's supposed to be mean, but I just love her"), enrolled at
Denison University in 1990 to study chemistry but changed her major to
drama. After college, she moved to New York and then to Los Angeles, paying
the bills with a hostess job at Isabella's restaurant.
She scored guest spots on Fantasy Island (the later series), Law &
Order and Spin City, before landing the breakthrough role of Agent Sydney
Bristow in 2001. Garner is currently filming the romantic drama 13 Going
On 30 opposite Mark Ruffalo.
Plans are also in the works for a Daredevil spin-off movie featuring
Elektra in the starring role — an idea she likes.
