Jennifer Garner has revealed the depth of her bond with Victor Garber, describing the veteran actor as a genuine father figure in her life, one who officiated her wedding and serves as godfather to one of her children.
Garner, 54, revisited some of her most iconic roles in a video for Vanity Fair on 9 July, with her leading role as spy Sydney Bristow in the ABC thriller Alias, which ran from 2001 to 2006 and earned her four Emmy nominations, featuring prominently.
Garber played Sydney’s father Jack Bristow throughout the series, and the connection clearly went far beyond the screen.
Before she was cast alongside him, Garner had been a devoted fan, watching Garber on Broadway from the cheapest standing spots she could afford when she lived in New York.
“I couldn’t afford to see plays, and so I would spend $20 to stand in the back. I’d seen Victor in Arcadia, in Art, in Damn Yankees, and when I heard that he would be playing my dad, I kind of lost my mind. I was so excited.”
She was also quick to note the wider truth. “Anything Victor Garber does is iconic,” she said of her friend.
The friendship that grew from that casting has lasted decades.
“I will do anything to be with him or to see him or to be there for him or to call him when I need him,” Garner said. “That’s a cherished relationship.”
The video also produced a moment of gentle deflation when Garner watched a clip of Garber’s character driving a car while simultaneously shooting at people outside the window.
“God, he’s such a badass,” she said, before immediately clarifying that Garber is actually “a horrific driver” in real life, a trait she put down to him being a lifelong New Yorker.
“There’s no way that that was Victor,” she said of the stunt driving.
Garner has continued to work with Garber since Alias ended, he had a guest role in the first season of her Apple TV+ series The Last Thing He Told Me, and both have publicly expressed their support for a potential reboot of the show.
Alias also starred Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman and a young Bradley Cooper.
