Still, Garner has managed some impressive additions to her résumé since becoming a mom. This past fall she starred opposite Ricky Gervais in his slyly thought-provoking directorial debut, The Invention of Lying. In 2007 she won praise for her portrayal of a woman desperate to be a mother in Juno and proved she could still deliver a beat-down as an FBI agent in The Kingdom. That year she also starred opposite Kevin Kline in Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway, managing to pull off the screen-to-stage transition more gracefully than most. “Ms. Garner...makes Roxane a girl worth pining over,” Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times. “The latest in a series of boldface film and television actresses to test their stage legs (including Julia Roberts and Claire Danes), Ms. Garner seems by far the most comfortable.”
Garner describes the production as “just my favorite thing I’ve ever done.” But she doesn’t plan to tread the boards again in the near future. “It’s hard on my family,” she says. “You can’t tell your kids, ‘I’m exhausted. Wake up with someone else today.’” For now at least, light, low-stress ensemble pieces like Valentine’s Day seem more up her alley. With a star-packed cast that includes Julia Roberts, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba, Taylor Swift, Jamie Foxx, Patrick Dempsey, Shirley MacLaine and Queen Latifah, the film weaves together a handful of interconnected love stories. “I got to work at home in L.A., which never happens, and it was a fun job that wasn’t all on me. There are a lot of things that made it an easy yes,” Garner says of her reasons for signing on to the movie, which she describes as “similar in feel and design to He’s Just Not That Into You. There’s nothing that’s not satisfying about it.”
For her next project, Garner hopes to produce and star in one of the movies she’s developing through her production company, Vandalia Films. First, however, she’ll take the fall off. “It’s hard because I’ve taken so much time off already,” she admits. “But I have this internal battle between, I need to work, I need to work, I need to work and I need to be home with my kids. And the kids win.”
Despite her dread of the life-under-a-microscope aspect of Los Angeles, Garner is looking forward to settling back in at home. “I miss my girlfriends!” she says. “That’s the hardest thing about being on location when it’s not for your own project. When it’s for you, you’re on set with everybody you know, but if not, it’s lonely. I can live with Ben working crazy hours. But I can’t live without girlfriends around to talk about men with!” she says with a laugh. “It’s fine if he’s not there; I just need someone to bitch about it to!”
