Jennifer Garner Once Revealed She Was Hysterical After ‘Alias’ Ended
Jennifer Garner’s hit show Alias had a huge impact on the actor’s life, so much so that it even prepared her for motherhood. So it’s no wonder that Garner had a difficult time letting the show go when it needed to end.
Jennifer Garner once shared her real reaction to the end of ‘Alias’
Alias took up a huge chunk of Garner’s life at one point. She famously starred in the J.J. Abrams series as agent Sydney Bristow, a role a famous Office star also auditioned for. There, she showed her potential as an action hero by performing many of her stunts. The show ran for five seasons, ending in 2006. It wasn’t canceled, however. All parties involved in the series just felt Alias ran its natural course.
“We feel like we have done right by these characters, and we’ve done right by the story,” Garner once said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “J.J. tells more story in an episode than most shows do in four. So we really feel like we’ve covered this ground. It feels incredibly respectful and not exploitative to let this end naturally…. It feels like a graduation. Graduation is hard. Imagine your life without these people. Well, this is a year longer than college, and a lot more happened to me during this show than it did during college.”
Garner may have felt satisfied with the show’s conclusion, but she still couldn’t help but mourn the series when it was time to bid farewell. In a 2007 interview with Collider, Garner confided that she was full of hysteria when it was finally time to move on.
“And even talking about it in the meetings when they first started talking about it, I said, ‘Well, it’ll be my last day,’” Garner said, revealing that she’d break down in tears constantly over the show’s finale. “Right? Wasn’t I just in hysteria.”
How Jennifer Garner wanted ‘Alias’ to be remembered
It was noted that Alias’ audience was regulated to its core fanbase during its last run with little growth among its demographic. But Garner was proud that Alias managed to hold onto a dedicated group of people willing to stick by the show until its end.
“We were just always amazed and grateful that we were coming back every year. We didn’t know if people would grab onto it at all, particularly because it asks so much of the audience,” she said. “We’re proud that the people who got the show got it so much and have stuck by it through so many changes and have just gone right along with it. I love that the show has flip-flopped its own idea of itself. I love that J.J. never let us take it so seriously that we couldn’t just turn it all on its head.”
And despite Alias’ narrow appeal, she hoped that the series would leave an impact that would outlast the show itself. Particularly, when it came to how it portrayed female characters.
“I hope this show is included with all of the shows that have celebrated strong women. To me, what’s mattered about this character is how much she’s struggled to hold on to her humanity in the middle of this weird world that she lives in, and how incredibly hard she works at doing the right thing when that isn’t always cut-and-dried,” she said.
Alias might’ve achieved this to an extent. On IGN’s top 100 TV shows of all-time list, Alias ranked at 84. The series also made it on IMDb’s top 100 list as well, coming in at 98. Garner has also been asked about rebooting the television series. The fact that Alias has lived in fans’ heads for so long after its finale is a testament to its enduring legacy.
