Jennifer Garner Didn’t Know if Audiences Would Be Able to Get Over Her ‘Girl Next Door’ Look for ‘Peppermint’
Jennifer Garner is no stranger to starring in action roles like Aliaswould be and Elektra. In 2018, she returned to the genre that made her a household name by starring in Peppermint. But the feature was even grittier than Garner’s prior action flicks. So much so that she was a bit unsure if audiences would’ve been able to buy her in the role.
Jennifer Garner wasn’t sure audiences would be able to look past her ‘Girl Next Door’ image for ‘Peppermint’
Garner hadn’t dipped her toe in an action film for a while before doing Peppermint. She took a long hiatus from acting to raise her kids. Additionally, when she did work, she usually starred in smaller films like Dallas Buyer’s Club. But Peppermint saw Garner go back to her roots as an action hero. In the feature, she played self-trained vigilante Riley North, who would go on to avenge her husband and child after they were brutally murdered. Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Garner revealed that she’d been offered similar movies before. But Peppermint was really the only script that spoke to her.
“I’d wanted to do something physical, but the roles that came my way didn’t have high enough stakes to make me believe in them,” she said. “The drama has to be real, and the reason for risk has to be the highest imaginable.”
The film’s director, Pierre Morel, actually felt Garner’s natural image and personally favored her role.
“Jen gives you exactly what you want from the role,” Morel said. “She’s America’s most loved mom, so she sells the part as the relatable, sweet mother at the beginning, and then allows you to embrace her journey as she becomes a woman who knows there’s no happily-ever-after for her and takes things into her own hands to get revenge.”
Much like her character, Garner went through the kind of training she did with characters like Sydney Burnett from Alias and Elektra. Despite her preparation for the role, however, Garner still wasn’t sure if audiences would see her as a ruthless vigilante. Especially when Peppermint was so much more violent and darker than a lot of other films in her filmography.
“I’ll be interested to see if people can separate their idea of me as the girl next door to accept me in this heightened reality,” she said. “Obviously we’re not condoning this kind of action in real life, but if it were a man doing it, would it be an issue? We’ll have to see.”
Why Jennifer Garner was inspired by her ‘Peppermint’ character
There isn’t much of a career overlap that Garner has with her character Riley North. However, Garner did find something in common with her more tormented and brutal counterpart. Garner hadn’t experienced a tragedy that was anything like what happened in Peppermint. But she related to Riley’s sense of duty when it came to her family.
“She immediately takes matters into her own had to make sure those people are brought to justice,” Garner told People. “The fact that she just says I’m a mom, I’m taking care of this and I’m going to do what I need to do. That, I’m inspired by. I’ve never gotten the chance to play that kind of visceral need to defend, or protect, or take care of someone in your family.”
Garner also asserted that the type of training she endured only helped her bond even more with her character.
“I’ve been training for a while on this. I did MMMA skills, gun skills, knife skills. It was the connection to the physical that made me kind of understand her fight for her daughter,” Garner said.
“The action is smart and the fights are smart and they’re all me,” she added. “What would you fight for more than your family?”
