> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Jennifer Garner reflects on being young again - URL: https://www.smdp.com/jennifer-garner-reflects-on-being-young-again/ - Published: 2004-04-23T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T04:14:44.000Z - Author: Dan Dunn - Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import Several thoughts occur while watching Jennifer Garner transform herself from TV star to bona fide big screen draw in the new motion picture “13 Going On 30,” among them: Whatever happened to the other girl from “Dude, Where’s My Car?” And just what is it that separates the Jennifer Garners from the Marla Sokoloffs of Hollywood? How in the world does stardom happen? But the longer you sit watching Garner inhabit the screen with an effortlessness that suggests she was born up there, the more you come to realize that actors like her shine brighter than the rest because they can’t help it. She is what she is, and what she is, is a star. As for the whereabouts of Ms. Sokoloff, who played Wilma to Garner’s Wanda in “Dude,” well, that’s a question better left unasked at a press junket roundtable. The following queries, though, passed muster. QUESTION: How did you go about getting in touch with your inner child for this film? JENNIFER GARNER: I think we’re all pretty much in touch with our inner 13-year-old, even if we’re not willing to admit it to ourselves. She’s probably closer to the surface for me than she is for most people. When I was deciding whether or not to take this role, the cast and crew of “Alias” were, like, don’t be ridiculous. You’re 30 while the camera rolls, and 13 as soon as they say “cut.” So I might as well get a paycheck for being who I really am. Q: Who wouldn’t want to get paid to act like a kid again, right? JG: For me it was about riding the line between having fun with it, and finding truth in it. I hung out with a lot of 13-year-olds. I had a sleepover with a bunch of girls, and we stayed up, did the Ouija board, watched movies and did makeup and ate gross food. And they reminded me of how sophisticated your average 13-year-old is, and how capable and adept and smart they are. Q: “13 Going on 30” employs a plot device that’s been used again and again, most successfully in “Big.” What do you think makes these types of movies so appealing? JG: It’s an element of fantasy we’ve all experienced — to switch places, to check out the other side, to see if the grass is really greener over there. Every (wish-fulfillment) film brings up something different, and in this case, the wish is much more about what can I do over, how can I repair my life, and what can I do going forward. The wish to simply be older is really a very small part of the movie. Q: Your character, Jenna, wakes up big one day and has everything she thinks she ever wanted — a glamorous job, fabulous friends, and a really cool apartment. What did you wish for when you were her age? JG: I wasn’t wishing at 13 to be famous, and I didn’t have stars in my eyes about this world. Living in West Virginia, it seemed like “Happy Days” was made on another planet. Never once did I watch it and think, oh, I want to do that. Whereas, if a traveling show of “Annie” came to town, I was dying to be up on stage with those kids. That, if anything, seemed like more of a possibility to me. Q: But you did become famous. When your career first started breaking, were you concerned — being a small-town girl — about the trappings of celebrity? JG: I always knew that the downside of wanting to do what I did would be the loss of privacy, but to me, every job has two sides to the coin. My little sister sometimes finds her job tedious. My older sister has to travel outside the country and leave her son. There’s not a job in the world that does not have some sort of dirty diaper element. Q: What soils your Pampers about this gig then? JG: My job has a fantasy element to it, but it isn’t a fantasy, it’s a job. There’s a very bizarre downside to this job, but it is what it is. *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 23, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042304.pdf?ref=smdp.com)