Jennifer Garner: ‘Judy Greer has carried me through the last 20 years’

Over the past two decades, the close friendship that’s blossomed between Jennifer Garner and Judy Greer has given me immeasurable amounts of joy.

For this nostalgic millennial, 13 Going on 30 has been one of my favourite films since its release in 2004. So much so that I even dressed up as Jenna Rink for my 30th birthday, multicoloured Thriller dress and all.

So when I recently had the chance to speak to Jennifer about season 2 of The Last Thing He Told Me for Metro alongside her co-star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, I had to know how it felt for her to reunite with Judy on-screen… as well as telling her about my fancy dress outfit.

The Apple TV Plus thriller, which premiered in 2023 and is based on the novel by Laura Dave, follows a woman called Hannah (Jennifer) whose life is turned upside down when her husband Owen (Nikolaj) vanishes, leaving her with his stepdaughter Bailey (Angourie Rice) as they grapple to piece together the mystery of his disappearance.

It turns out that Owen’s real name is Ethan, and he was previously married to the daughter of a mobster lawyer called Nicholas Bell (David Morse).

After Ethan’s wife was murdered, he fled with his daughter to create a new life for them both with fresh identities. Eventually, he met, fell in love with and married Hannah.

Ethan’s involvement with the police, leaking information to them to bring down members of the crime syndicate, results in him being forced to go on the run.

The season one finale ends with a five-year time jump, when a heavily disguised Owen discreetly visits Hannah after she was forced to sacrifice their life together to protect Bailey.

In season two, the stakes are at an all-time high. Hannah knows that her husband is alive, but is not supposed to have contact with him. Owen (aka Ethan) is still working to bring down the dangerous criminals who threaten his family, and Judy enters the fray as Quinn, the eldest daughter of the Campano crime family.

‘Judy and I have been friends ever since 13 Going on 30. There’s such a lovely shorthand. You don’t erase the history that you have with someone,’ Jennifer, 53, told Metro, shortly after Apple TV’s press day in Los Angeles.

‘She’s carried me through the last 20 years, and I’ve a little bit carried her. I’ve watched her evolve into a more and more formidable, stronger, deadlier actress, and so to be on the other side of her in these scenes was… it just really asked me to up my game. I was thrilled to have that opportunity.

‘I get to do that with Nikolaj, but it’s usually you’re with a man to do that. With another woman, it’s really special.’

While The Last Thing He Told Me might be an action-packed thriller, at its core it’s an enthralling family drama, complete with complex relationships and generational trauma.

One of the overarching questions that runs through the centre of the story is how much you’re willing to sacrifice for the people you love.

‘It’s a question we all struggle with all the time, because we all know it’s very easy to have opinions of how other people should live their lives when you see it from afar,’ Game of Thrones star Nikolaj, 55, said.

‘It’s not that simple when you have to sacrifice stuff. You would hope – I would hope – that there would be no limits to do whatever you could for the people you love. There’s different families within the show, and they all are faced with these very foundational questions.’

Jennifer, who’s also an executive producer on the series, added: ‘What’s interesting is that as we are trying to dive into these real-life tough questions at the centre of this show, we’re being chased, and we are barely one step ahead, and not even always one step ahead of losing our lives.

‘You have this super propulsive energy, and you have this real family love story in the middle of it, and then you have this real baddie of Judy Greer showing up and her whole family, Luke Kirby and John Noble, they’re so amazing.

‘This season really does offer more of the same, deeper, better. Laura’s sequel did not become an instant bestseller on the New York Times list for nothing. She wrote a fantastic story.’

The Last Thing He Told Me season 2 premieres on Friday February 20 on Apple TV Plus, with episodes being made available to watch weekly.

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