By Christina Radish
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Jennifer Garner at the MTV Video Music Awards held at the Palms Casino Resort & Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 9, 2007. |
The Universal Pictures film The Kingdom, directed by Peter Berg, is a timely action-thriller that tracks a criminal investigation shared by two cultures chasing a deadly enemy, ready to strike again. When more than 100 oil company employees and their family members are slaughtered, and more than 200 are wounded, by suicide bombers in the Gulf Oasis Western Housing Compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx) and his FBI team -- senior task force member and explosives expert Grant Sykes (Academy Award winner Chris Cooper), forensics examiner Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner) and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman) -- negotiate a secret five-day trip into the hostile territory to locate the madman behind the bombing.
Once there, Fleury finds a like-minded partner in their handler, Saudi Colonel Al Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), assigned to protect the visiting Americans. As Al Ghazi helps Fleury’s crew navigate royal politics and unlock the secrets of the crime scene, they discover the workings of an extremist cell bent on further destruction. With these unlikely allies sharing a commitment to crack the case, the team must fight for their lives until justice is found.
Jennifer Garner, best known for her action work in such projects as Alias and Daredevil, talks to MediaBlvd Magazine about taking a few beatings in her fight scenes.
MediaBlvd Magazine> Can you talk about the tone of this film, and walking the fine line between dealing with a real situation, like the one in the Middle East, and making a big action film out of that?
Jennifer Garner> You see everybody in the movie, 360 degrees. You see our Saudi Arabian counterparts at home, in prayer position. They’re humanized. You see them at home with their wives and kids, and you see what their lives are like. There’s no judgment put on anyone. The film very much says, “We are all the same,” and that’s what I loved about it. I loved that there are no solid heroes. It’s not like the US is coming in there with guns blazing, saying, “We’ll take of this!” My favorite line in the movie is when Jamie Foxx says, “Look, I’m not saying the United States knows everything, but this is something we’re good at.” We’re not pretending to be perfect. I loved that. It took the onus off of us. But, we are good at investigation, as a country, so that is a fair thing to say.
MediaBlvd> Has the film sparked more curiosity about the Middle East in you? What kind of research did you do?
Jennifer> I read several books and did some research, just to be as familiar with it as possible. But, I am not a particularly outwardly political person. I leave that to the other half of my family. And so, I focused as much, if not more, on the character, and being a forensics expert, and what it would be like for her in that circumstance, as much as what our relationship was overall.
MediaBlvd> Did you learn about how female FBI agents have to act in an Arab country?
Jennifer> The FBI was so incredibly helpful in the making of this movie. I would just be around the women, looking at them to remember what their hair and make-up was like. I would ask them, “What’s do you have in your pockets?” I would hear things like, “I always have these gloves,” or “I always have candy for a stressful situation,” or “I always have something to write with.” So, I stole that. Whether I used that stuff or not, I always had something in my pockets, in the movie. I would say to the prop guy, “Okay, I think I need some more gloves,” or “I think I need some more lollipops,” and they would fill up my pockets. That was really fascinating. Those women are incredible. They are real women, in the middle of the country, that are armed and ready to go into a really hairy situation. And, they have kids at home, and they go home most nights, but every now and then, they have a bank robbery to deal with. They were amazing.
MediaBlvd> You’ve done a lot of amazing fight work in your various projects, but this film has some of your best. How did you feel about the intense fight scene at the end of the movie?
Jennifer> To be honest, I thought it wasn’t going to be much of anything. I kept saying to my stunt double, who I’ve worked with for six years, and who is really my partner in crime and one of my best friends, “When are we gonna have rehearsal for this fight scene?” We go in 110% prepared. I could still do the fights from Daredevil in my sleep, along with a bunch of the Alias ones. I kept saying, “When are we going to rehearse? I’m getting nervous. Isn’t there a fight scene?” And, she kept saying to me, “We don’t need to rehearse.” And then, that day, I showed up and she had just learned the fight, and she said, “This is unlike anything we’ve ever done. Get ready. We’re just going to try to beat the shit out of each other.” That is just so Pete Berg. Pete Berg was a guest star on Alias the first season, and he and I had a fight. His idea of doing a fight was to improvise. I’m a girl. I don’t really want to be punched. He said, “Hey, once we get into it, let’s just see what happens.” He started trying to actually hit me. So, I shouldn’t have been surprised. They yanked me out of that fight scene so fast. I remember my camera guys were just like, “We’re going to kill him. If he hits you again, we’ll kill him.” They put my stunt double in to take all my bruises, and she was in there biting Pete Berg. I should not have been surprised when she said to me, “This is just a fight where you try to kill him and he’ll try to kill you.” It turned out to be an amazingly real scrabble. We loved shooting it. We had a blast.
MediaBlvd> So, it was more down and dirty than choreographed?
Jennifer> It was so down and dirty that we had scratch marks that we had to cover up on my face because he tried to grab me and pull my face off. He had a scab on his ear because I bit his ear. I just yanked and got his ear. It was nasty. It was great.
MediaBlvd> How did you prepare yourself mentally for the fight scene?
Jennifer> I wouldn’t say that I really prepared myself mentally. We prepared ourselves for the roles, and Pete was a huge help in that. Instead of having rehearsals, where you’re faking your way through scenes that you’re going to re-rehearse and re-write anyway, our rehearsals were practical. We just joined a class with this group of FBI officers who were in evidence response training from all over the country. They were in LA learning about bombs, and we just walked into their class. It was me, Jamie Foxx and Jason Bateman, and they were all like, “Sydney Bristow is in our bomb class?” It was great. We learned a ton. And, because we improvised so much of the movie, it made it really easy that we all had this common dialogue of high explosive versus low explosive, and all different kinds of detonators. We spent a day with them, learning about fingerprinting and all kinds of evidence response and retrieval things. And then, we had a day where we learned how to use guns properly. We did a paint gun thing, where the actors simulated the kind of mission that we would actually be on in the movie. It terrified me. I was so grateful. That day, I just remember being so grateful that I don’t have to do that in my life, and that it was just pretend. I just couldn’t believe that we send these kids over there to do that.
MediaBlvd> What does your husband think when you do those fight scenes. Does he know how tough you are, and that he shouldn’t mess with you?
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Co-stars Jamie Foxx & Jennifer Garner at the MTV Video Music Awards held at the Palms Casino Resort & Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 9, 2007. |
Jennifer> I wish he felt that way about real life. He was visiting the set the day that I shot that big fight scene and I thought it would have made him a little bit nervous to see that guy chucking me against the wall, harder and harder with every take. But, he was a little too calm about it. Between us, I thought he could have been a little bit more like, “That’s my wife! You’d better be careful with her.” He was just like, “Go for it, babe! Harder!”
MediaBlvd> Does motherhood determine the kinds of projects you take on?
Jennifer> I don’t take or not take a role based on the physicality. If my stunt double says something is safe, I’m going do it. I’m not going to get killed, getting a couple of bruises. We did have a rule in the fight, because I was breast-feeding, that he had to stay away from my boobs, and he did. That was the one sacred thing. He could go for my head. He could pull my hair. He just couldn’t grab the boobs. So, motherhood did have something to do with that, but other than that, what are a couple of bruises? My daughter doesn’t care. She’s just a kid, and I’m fine. But, there is a natural priority, and there never has been before. I probably would have worked straight through this year because lots of great, fun things came up, but I can’t bear to do something that I don’t have to do because she’s so delicious.
MediaBlvd> How are the terrible twos going?
Jennifer> We’ve seen glimpses of terrible. But, for the most part, things are pretty smooth. We haven’t hit two yet.
MediaBlvd> How was it to shoot out in the desert?
Jennifer> I spent two nights in the hospital. That was entertaining. Out of all the stuff I’ve ever done, I had never gone down before. I’d never had to go to the hospital. I’d worked so many more hours than this before, and I just couldn’t believe. I never fainted, or anything like that, but it was, “Jennifer Garner collapsed on the set.” That didn’t happen. I just was dizzy and I didn’t feel right. When we were on our way home I said, “I feel not right enough that I don’t know if I can pick up my child, so let’s just go get me checked out.” And, it turned out that, basically, after all was said and done, it was too hot and I was in the heat for too long, every day, to still be breast feeding, so I slipped myself into heat stroke. I wasn’t willing to give up breast feeding and my body wasn’t really that into it, so I had a couple of nights where I didn’t feel so good. They gave me a shot, and then I felt better.
MediaBlvd> What was it like to improvise during filming?
Jennifer> You’re working with the best, when it comes to Jamie. And, Jason Bateman never stays on book once. He’s incredibly deft at coming up with stuff, right in the scene. I felt like I needed to be really prepared because the scene could go anywhere. And, you’d have Pete sitting at the monitor, saying, “Yo, Jen, say this!” I’d just look over at him and say, “Really, Pete?,” and he’d say, “Yeah, say it! It’s funny!” So, I’d say it and then see it in the movie, and he was right. It was hysterically funny. On television, you don’t improvise. At least, in any experience I’ve ever had. You stick to the script because the script is the Bible. Of course, I had been trained in that stuff and I had done it a lot growing up, but it had been a while. Every day, I got a little more comfortable with it. It was so good for me. I was really happy.
MediaBlvd> Did you choose to do a film like Juno after this, so that you could take a break from the bigger films and do an independent?
Jennifer> If actors or actresses had every kind of script in front of them, at all times, maybe you would think, “Oh, I just did this big movie, so maybe I should do a little independent.” It’s not that way. Part of it is what comes to you, and a huge part of it is what you respond to. That’s how I’ve always worked.
MediaBlvd> Now that your husband is directing, are you looking to star in his next directing effort?
Jennifer> I don’t think I would ever star in a movie that Ben directed because somebody has to raise the kids. But, he’d better, eventually, find a little something for me, or he’ll pay for it.
MediaBlvd> Are you making your Broadway debut with Kevin Kline, in the revival of Cyrano de Bergerac, for 10 weeks, starting in October?
Jennifer> Yes, I am. I’m rehearsing in New York, and I’m freaking out and so excited. It’s always been my absolute dream of all dreams. All of this other stuff that I’ve done has been accidental. I always meant to be on stage. I only ended up auditioning for television and movies because I was understudying a Turgenev play on Broadway and was so broke that, when I got a mini-series, I had to take it and was so ashamed because I was such a snob. So, I couldn’t pass up. I get so excited, just thinking about working with Kevin Kline, being in New York in the Fall, doing this role and getting to say these words.
MediaBlvd> What was the play you were understudying?
Jennifer> “A Month in the Country” with Helen Mirren and Ron Rifkin. I watched every performance. At the time, when I was living in New York, I went to everything Victor Garber did. I saw him four things. I was such a fan of his and, when they told me that Victor and Ron were going to be on Alias, I was so nervous, the first few times I met them. Ron remembered me as being the little kid understudy, who is in the back of the theater, so eager. I was so starstruck around them.
MediaBlvd> Do you find that you’re typecast as the kick-butt woman?
Jennifer> I don’t want to jinx myself, but no. I don’t find that. I feel like I get a wide range of things that come my way, and I feel really lucky for that. I would love to go back and do a great action movie, as long as the story is as good as this one. But, I love doing other stuff, too.
MediaBlvd> Would you consider resurrecting your Alias character, if they were to do a feature film?
Jennifer> I don’t think it’s really up to me. If J.J. Abrams were writing and directing it, then absolutely. I think we’d all sign on. It’s all in his crazy brain. But, I haven’t heard that from him. He certainly hasn’t mentioned that to me. But, I’d be there.
MediaBlvd> If J.J. were to ask you to do a bit part in Star Trek, would you?
Jennifer> Absolutely. Anything J.J. asks me to do, ever, is a clear yes. I owe him.
