Jennifer Garner Misses Smiling at Strangers

By Emma Chance | TV | June 28, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | TV | June 28, 2023 |

In a recent roundtable conversation for The Hollywood Reporter with Jennifer Coolidge, Claire Danes, Emma D’Arcy, Dominique Fishback, Jennifer Garner, and Melanie Lynskey, the conversation turned to what is lost in fame.

The first question from the moderator was, “If a fan approaches you on the street, what do you typically hear?”

“If someone comes up and says, ‘My dad loves you,’ then I know they’re going to talk about Two and a Half Men. But if someone comes up and says, ‘Are you famous?’ which sometimes happens, I say no,” was Lynskey’s answer.

D’Arcy explained that the wig they wore in House of the Dragon proved a “blessing” because it meant they don’t always get recognized, adding, “I feel that invisibility and the ability to observe others and not be the observed is so fundamentally important to our job.” They explained that looking so different in real life from the characters they portray gives them “a possible out.”

“I’ve taken the out for sure,” Garner agreed.

“It’s an enormous loss when you are the person that the eyes are directed toward,” she continued. “The loss of just being able to smile at someone on the street and say hello as yourself is a really intense thing—something to mourn and not to be taken lightly.”

Danes joined the discussion to add, “Denial is a great tool and you can kind of set the tone, too. Sometimes it’s beyond your control, but if you’re not that interested in it, then people take the cue from that.”

“That’s more true now than it used to be,” Garner responded. “And maybe just because I’m older now and I’m not at the center of things, it’s just calmed down enough for me in a way that I’m so grateful for.”

But fame isn’t all misery. “The world of being famous, it’s really pretty beautiful; it lets you connect with people,” Garner concluded. “It’s a really lucky thing.”