Jennifer Garner told the Television Critics Association that she always expected to do another TV show, on a panel for her new HBO comedy Camping. After the panel she spoke with reporters a little more about the new show.
Garner plays Kathryn, a woman on a camping trip with her family that goes wrong. Hilarity ensues, HBO-style. Based on the British series, Camping premieres on October 14, 2018 at 10pm ET/PT on HBO.
What do your kids think about camping?
Jennifer Garner: “My kids? They’re at the age where they just make fun of me all the time so that’s what they think.”
Did they think it was realistic?
Jennifer Garner: “Well, they wouldn’t see it. It’s not appropriate for them.”
What was fun about digging into your organized side and blowing it up to find the comedy?
Jennifer Garner: “You know what was fun was figuring out how and why Catherine is hanging on and why she needs to be so controlled. I love the moments that Jenny (Konner) and Lena (Dunham) gave her, like in the hospital, where she says to her son, ‘You just don’t know.’ She is living in such a panicked place.
When you think about someone who’s lived with chronic pain and the misdiagnoses and people dismissing their pain, all the exploratory surgeries, you can see how you build layer after layer of defensiveness, to the point where her defensiveness has become aggressive, and she is out there attacking before anyone can accuse her of not having sex when they want or not being who she wants. That’s what was fascinating and so cool to me was to try to figure out the psychology that made her her.”
What moment or scene resonated with you the most while you were shooting?
Jennifer Garner: “Oh my gosh, there was so much. Gosh, the relationships with other women, the relationship with her sister. My sisters and I have zero contention. We fought as little kids but as adults we just don’t. I can’t even imagine arguing with my sisters. And yet there’s something so true and so deep about who you are to that other person in your life. For whatever reason, being in that place with Ione (Skye) was really easy. I found I could connect with her and she to me I think, (in a ) really just deep true way as if we had a lifetime of history.”
Was there really a bear there?
Jennifer Garner: “What do you think?”
Do you feel your funny side came out in your real life while playing her?
Jennifer Garner: “I felt light and happy. It was just a light, happy experience. It’s good for you to go and laugh for 12 hours a day. It’s a good thing, and I felt really ready for it and I felt light and funny. We did do that. We really were on the edge of getting ourselves in trouble all the time with breaking.”
13 Going on 30 is a favorite, do you have a favorite go to female-driven comedy?
Jennifer Garner: “Oh, yeah. So many but Overboard, Sweet Home Alabama.”
When you camp with your kids, what do you make?
Jennifer Garner: “The only thing that matters is Smores. You can make whatever you want but you’re going to have Smores and that’s all they’ll remember. You know, hot dogs, hamburgers, eggs over the fire.”
What are you binge-watching right now?
Jennifer Garner: “The Great British Bake-Off I love because they’re so kind to each other and so supportive of each other. That is one I watch with my girls at night. I really went on a big Cheers thing. I really went down sitcom alley. I went hard because I just like watching funny.”
